Enhanced electronic gaming machine with dynamic gaze display

ABSTRACT

A method of operating an electronic gaming machine includes generating an interactive game environment in accordance with game data, the interactive game environment having a viewing area may include a plurality of visible game components as a subset of the interactive game environment, displaying the viewing area with the plurality of visible game components, monitoring eye gaze of a player to collect player eye gaze data, determining a location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the player eye gaze data, and in response to the location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area, changing a resolution of a portion of the viewing area other than a portion of the viewing area corresponding to location of the eye gaze of the player on the viewing area. Related electronic gaming machines are also disclosed.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/069,372, filed on Mar. 14, 2016, which claims priority under 35U.S.C. § 120 from U.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/966,633, filed onDec. 11, 2015, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated byreference herein as if set forth in their entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments described herein relate to the field of electronic gamingmachines. The embodiments described herein particularly relate to thefield of providing an enhanced electronic gaming machine where theplayer can interact with a game and display using the player's eye gaze.

INTRODUCTION

Casinos and other establishments may have video gaming terminals thatmay include game machines, online gaming systems (that enable users toplay games using computer devices, whether desktop computers, laptops,tablet computers or smart phones), computer programs for use on acomputer device (including desktop computer, laptops, tablet computersor smart phones), or gaming consoles that are connectable to a displaysuch as a television or computer screen.

Video gaming terminals may be configured to enable users to play gameswith a touch interface. Example games may be a slot machine game, whichmay involve a reel of symbols that may move by pulling a lever toactivate the reel of symbols. A user may win a prize based on thesymbols displayed on the reel. In addition to slot machine games, videogaming machines may be configured to enable users to play a variety ofdifferent types of games. To interact with a game component of the game,the user may have to press a button that is part of the machinehardware, or the user may have to touch a button displayed on a displayscreen.

The size of a video gaming terminal may be limited by its hardware,which may limit the amount of and types of physical interactions that auser may engage in with the machine to play the game. A user may want tohave different experiences at a video gaming terminal. However, since avideo game terminal and its associated hardware have finite size, theremay be a limit on the number of buttons or physical elements on thegaming terminal. For example, a display screen of a gaming terminal hasa finite size, so a limited number of game components, buttons, orinterfaces may be displayed.

There is a need to immerse the user in their gaming experience at avideo gaming terminal and make more efficient use of the physicallimitations of the hardware of the video gaming terminal, and thereforeit is necessary to innovate by launching new and engaging game machineswith improved hardware.

SUMMARY

An electronic gaming machine according to some embodiments includes adata storage device that stores game data for an interactive game, adisplay controller that generates an interactive game environment inaccordance with the game data and defines a viewing area having aplurality of visible game components as a subset of the interactive gameenvironment, a display device that displays, via a user interface, theviewing area with the plurality of visible game components, a datacapture camera device that monitors eye gaze of a first player and asecond player to collect player eye gaze data for the first playerand/or the second player, and a game controller that determines alocation of the eye gaze of the first player and a location of the eyegaze of the second player relative to the viewing area using the playereye gaze data and that triggers a control command to the displaycontroller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area basedon the player eye gaze data. In response to the control command, thedisplay controller dynamically updates the rendering of the viewing areato provide a graphical animation effect displayed on the display devicerepresentative of a visual update to manipulate the display of at leastone of the plurality of visible game components in the viewing area, thevisual update based on the player eye gaze data.

The game controller may control the interactive game to allow the firstplayer and the second player to play the interactive game simultaneouslyin response to eye gaze data from both the first player and the secondplayer.

The player eye gaze data may include a position and a focus, theposition defined as coordinates of the eyes of at least one playerrelative to the display device, and the focus defined as a line of sightof the at least one player's eyes relative to the display device.

The game controller may determine the location of the eye gaze of atleast one of the first player and the second player relative to theviewing area by identifying coordinates on the display devicecorresponding to the player eye gaze data and mapping the coordinates tothe viewing area.

The game controller may define a filter movement threshold, and the gamecontroller, prior to determining the location of the eye gaze of atleast one of the first player and the second player relative to theviewing area and triggering the control command to the displaycontroller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area, maydetermine that the eye gaze of the at least one player meets the filtermovement threshold.

The game controller may predict the location of the eye gaze of at leastone of the first player and the second player relative to the viewingarea at a future time using the player eye gaze data and historical datafrom the same or other players to facilitate dynamic predictive updateof the rendering of the viewing area.

The at least one data capture camera device may monitor an areaproximate to the electronic gaming machine to collect proximity data.The game controller may detect a location of at least one of the firstplayer and the second player relative to the electronic gaming machinebased on the proximity data, and trigger the display controller todisplay an advertisement on the display device.

The display controller may render a gaze-sensitive user interface on thedisplay device. The game controller may detect the location of the eyegaze of at least one of the first player and the second player relativeto the gaze-sensitive user interface using the player eye gaze data, andtrigger the display controller to dynamically update the rendering ofthe gaze-sensitive user interface to provide a graphical animationeffect displayed on the display device representative of a visual updateto the gaze-sensitive user interface.

The graphics processor may generate left and right eye images based on aselected three-dimensional intensity level, the display device is astereoscopic display device, and the game controller may trigger thecontrol command to the display controller to dynamically update therendering of the of the left and right eye images based on the playereye gaze data.

The graphical animation effect and the visual update may focus on aportion of the visible game components and blur another portion of thevisible game elements.

The viewing area may have a plurality of invisible game components, andthe graphical animation effect and the visual update may render visibleat least a portion of the invisible game components.

The graphical animation effect and the visual update may distort aportion of the viewing area, distort a portion of the visible gamecomponents, display at least a portion of the visible game components ingreater detail or higher resolution, and magnify a portion of thevisible game components or hide a portion of the visible gamecomponents.

The graphical animation effect and the visual update may select aportion of the visible game components or is representative of amagnetic attraction towards the location of the eye gaze of at least oneof the first player and the second player relative to the viewing area.

The at least one data capture camera device may continuously monitors aneye gesture of the player to collect player eye gesture data, and thegame controller may trigger the control command to the displaycontroller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area basedon the player eye gesture.

An electronic gaming machine according to further embodiments mayinclude a data storage device to store game data for an interactivegame, a display controller that generates an interactive gameenvironment in accordance with the game data and defines a viewing areahaving a plurality of visible game components as a subset of theinteractive game environment, a display device that displays, via a userinterface, the viewing area with the plurality of visible gamecomponents, a data capture camera device that monitors eye gaze of aplayer to collect player eye gaze data, and a game controller thatdetermines a location of the eye gaze of the player relative to theviewing area using the player eye gaze data and triggering a controlcommand to the display controller to dynamically update the rendering ofthe viewing area based on the player eye gaze data. In response to thecontrol command, the display controller may control the display deviceusing the graphics processor to change a resolution of a portion of theviewing area other than a portion of the viewing area corresponding tolocation of the eye gaze of the player on the viewing area.

The player eye gaze data may include a position and a focus, theposition defined as coordinates of the eyes of at least one playerrelative to the display device, and the focus defined as a line of sightof the at least one player's eyes relative to the display device.

The game controller may determine the location of the eye gaze of theplayer relative to the viewing area by identifying coordinates on thedisplay device corresponding to the player eye gaze data and mapping thecoordinates to the viewing area.

The game controller may define a filter movement threshold, and the gamecontroller, prior to determining the location of the eye gaze of theplayer relative to the viewing area and triggering the control commandto the display controller to dynamically update the rendering of theviewing area, determines that the eye gaze of the player meets thefilter movement threshold.

The game controller may predict the location of the eye gaze of theplayer relative to the viewing area at a future time using the playereye gaze data and historical data from the same or other players tofacilitate dynamic predictive update of the rendering of the viewingarea.

A method of operating an electronic gaming machine according to someembodiments includes generating an interactive game environment inaccordance with game data, the interactive game environment having aviewing area may include a plurality of visible game components as asubset of the interactive game environment, displaying the viewing areawith the plurality of visible game components, monitoring eye gaze of aplayer to collect player eye gaze data, determining a location of theeye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the player eyegaze data, and in response to the location of the eye gaze of the playerrelative to the viewing area, changing a resolution of a portion of theviewing area other than a portion of the viewing area corresponding tolocation of the eye gaze of the player on the viewing area.

Further features and combinations thereof concerning embodiments aredescribed.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an electronic gaming machine forimplementing the gaming enhancements according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of an electronic gaming machine linked toa casino host system according to some embodiments;

FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of an exemplary online implementation ofa computer system and online gaming system according to someembodiments;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a calibration process for theelectronic gaming machine according to some embodiments;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the mapping of a player's eyegaze to the viewing area according to some embodiments;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart diagram of a method implemented by an electronicgaming machine according to some embodiments;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating an electronic gaming machinedisplaying an advertisement based on collected proximity data accordingto some embodiments;

FIGS. 7A and 7B are schematic diagrams illustrating a gaze-sensitiveuser interface according to some embodiments;

FIG. 8 is a schematic illustrating an electronic gaming machine with astereoscopic 3D screen where the player can interact with objectsdisplayed on the stereoscopic 3D screen with the player's eye gazeaccording to some embodiments;

FIGS. 9A to 12E are schematic diagrams illustrating some embodiments ofinteractions between a player's eye gaze and the viewing area; and

FIGS. 13 and 14 are schematic diagrams that illustrate navigating fromone portion of the interactive game environment to a second portion ofthe interactive game environment according to some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments described herein relate to an enhanced electronic gamingmachine (EGM) where the player can play an interactive game using theireye gaze. The EGM may include at least one data capture camera device tocontinuously monitor the eye gaze of the player to collect player eyegaze data. The EGM may have a card reader to identify the amount ofmoney that a player conveys to the EGM. The graphics processor of theEGM may be configured to generate an interactive game environment usingthe game data of an interactive game. The display device of the EGM maydisplay a viewing area, which may be a portion of the interactive gameenvironment. The EGM may have a game controller that can determine thelocation of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area bymapping the location of the player eye gaze on the display device to theviewing area. The game controller may trigger a control command to thedisplay controller of the EGM to dynamically update the rendering of theviewing area based on the player eye gaze data. In response to thecontrol command, the display controller may control the display devicein real-time or near real-time using the graphics processor todynamically update the rendering of the viewing area to provide areal-time or near real-time graphical animation effect displayed on thedisplay device to update the visible game components in the viewing areabased on the player eye gaze data. Depending on the outcome of theinteractive game, the card reader may update the monetary amount.

The EGM may include one or more data capture camera devices that may beconfigured with algorithms to process recorded image data to detect inreal-time the position of the player's eyes in three-dimensional (3D)space and the focus of the player's gaze in two dimensional-space (2D)or 3D space. The position of the player's eyes may be the physicallocation of the player's eyes in 3D space. The focus of the player'sgaze may be the focus of the gaze on a display device of the EGM. Aplayer may maintain the position of the player's eyes while focusing ondifferent areas of a display device of the EGM. A player may maintainthe focus of the player's eye gaze on the same portion of a displaydevice of the EGM while changing the position of their eyes.

The EGM may monitor the player eye gaze on the viewing area by mappingthe player eye gaze on the display device to the viewing area. The EGMmay dynamically update and render the viewing area in 2D or 3D. Theplayer may play an interactive game using only the eye gaze of theplayer. In some embodiments, the player may play an interactive gameusing their eye gaze, eye gesture, movement, or any combination thereof.

The gaming enhancements described herein may be carried out using aphysical EGM. EGM may be embodied in a variety of forms, machines anddevices including, for example, portable devices, such as tablets andsmart phones, that can access a gaming site or a portal (which mayaccess a plurality of gaming sites) via the Internet or othercommunication path (e.g., a LAN or WAN), and so on. The EGM may belocated in various venues, such as a casino or an arcade. One exampletype of EGM is described with respect to FIG. 1.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an EGM 10 configured to continuouslymonitor eye gaze of a player to collect player eye gaze data. A gamecontroller may determine a location of the eye gaze of the playerrelative to a viewing area of the interactive game environment using theplayer eye gaze data and triggering a control command to a displaycontroller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area basedon the player eye gaze data. EGM 10 has at least one data storage deviceto store game data for an interactive game. The data storage device maystore game data for one or more primary interactive games and one ormore bonus interactive games. EGM 10 may have the display controller fordetecting the control command to dynamically update the rendering of theviewing area to provide a real-time or near real-time graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device representative of avisual update to one or more visible game components that may be in theviewing area.

An example embodiment of EGM 10 includes a display device 12 that may bea thin film transistor (TFT) display, a liquid crystal display (LCD), acathode ray tube (CRT), auto stereoscopic 3D display and LED display, anOLED display, or any other type of display. An optional second displaydevice 14 provides game data or other information in addition to displaydevice 12. Display device 12, 14, may have 2D display capabilities or 3Ddisplay capabilities, or both. Gaming display device 14 may providestatic information, such as an advertisement for the game, the rules ofthe game, pay tables, pay lines, or other information, or may evendisplay the main game or a bonus game along with display device 12.Alternatively, the area for display device 14 may be a display glass forconveying information about the game. Display device 12, 14 may alsoinclude a camera, sensor, and other hardware input devices. Displaydevice 12, 14 may display at least a portion of the visible gamecomponents of an interactive game.

In some embodiments, the display device 12, 14 may be a touch sensitivedisplay device. The player may interact with the display device 12, 14using touch control such as, but not limited to, touch, hold, swipe, andmulti-touch controls. The player may use these interactions tomanipulate the interactive game environment for easier viewing orpreference, to manipulate game elements such as visible game components,or to select at least a portion of the visible game components dependingon the design of the game. For example, the player may select one ormore visible game components displayed by the display device 12, 14. Asanother example, the player may not have to touch the display device 12,14 to play the interactive game. The player may instead interact withthe interactive game using their eye gaze, eye gestures, and/or bodymovements.

EGM 10 may include a player input device or a data capture camera deviceto continuously detect and monitor player interaction commands (e.g. eyegaze, eye gestures, player movement, touch, gestures) to interact withthe viewing area and game components displayed on the display device 12,14. EGM 10 has a game controller for determining a location of the eyegaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the player eyegaze data collected by the at least one data capture camera device,which may continuously monitor eye gaze of a player. The game controllermay trigger a control command to the display controller to dynamicallyupdate the rendering of the viewing area based on the player eye gazedata. In response to the control command, the display controller maycontrol the display device in real-time or near real-time using thegraphics processor to dynamically update the rendering of the viewingarea to provide a real-time or near real-time graphical animation effectdisplayed on the display device that may represent a visual update tothe visible game components in the viewing area, the visual update basedon the player eye gaze data. In some embodiments, the control commandmay be based on the eye gaze, eye gesture, or the movement of theplayer, or any combination thereof. The eye gaze of the player may bethe location on the display device where the player is looking. The eyegesture of the player may be the gesture made by the player using one ormore eyes, such as widening the eyes, narrowing the eyes, blinking, andopening one eye and closing the other. The movement of the player may bethe movement of the player's body, which may include head movement, handmovement, chest movement, leg movement, foot movement, or anycombination thereof. A winning outcome of the game for provision of anaward may be triggered based on the eye gaze, eye gesture, or themovement of the player. For example, by looking at a game componentdisplayed by the display controller on the display device 12, 14 for apre-determined period of time, the player may trigger a winning outcome.The award may include credits, free games, mega pot, small pot,progressive pot, and so on.

Display device 12, 14 may have a touch screen lamination that includes atransparent grid of conductors. Touching the screen may change thecapacitance between the conductors, and thereby the X-Y location of thetouch may be determined. The X-Y location of the touch may be mapped topositions of interest to detect selection thereof, for example, the gamecomponents of the interactive game. A processor of EGM 10 associatesthis X-Y location with a function to be performed. Such touch screensmay be used for slot machines, for example, or other types of gamingmachines. There may be an upper and lower multi-touch screen inaccordance with some embodiments. One or both of display device 12, 14may be configured to have auto stereoscopic 3D functionality to provide3D enhancements to the interactive game environment. The touch locationpositions may be 3D, for example, and mapped to at least one visiblegame component of the plurality of visible game components.

A coin slot 22 may accept coins or tokens in one or more denominationsto generate credits within EGM 10 for playing games. An input slot 24for an optical reader and printer receives machine readable printedtickets and outputs printed tickets for use in cashless gaming. Anoutput slot 26 may be provided for outputting various physical indicia,such as physical tokens, receipts, bar codes, etc.

A coin tray 32 may receive coins or tokens from a hopper upon a win orupon the player cashing out. However, the EGM 10 may be a gamingterminal that does not pay in cash but only issues a printed ticket forcashing in elsewhere. Alternatively, a stored value card may be loadedwith credits based on a win, or may enable the assignment of credits toan account associated with a computer system, which may be a computernetwork connected computer.

A card reader slot 34 may read from various types of cards, such assmart cards, magnetic strip cards, or other types of cards conveyingmachine readable information. The card reader reads the inserted cardfor player and credit information for cashless gaming. Card reader slot34 may read a magnetic code on a conventional player tracking card,where the code uniquely identifies the player to a host system at thevenue. The code is cross-referenced by the host system to any datarelated to the player, and such data may affect the games offered to theplayer by the gaming terminal. Card reader slot 34 may also include anoptical reader and printer for reading and printing coded barcodes andother information on a paper ticket. A card may also include credentialsthat enable the host system to access one or more accounts associatedwith a user. The account may be debited based on wagers by a user andcredited based on a win.

The card reader slot 34 may be implemented in different ways for variousembodiments. The card reader slot 34 may be an electronic reading devicesuch as a player tracking card reader, a ticket reader, a banknotedetector, a coin detector, and any other input device that can read aninstrument supplied by the player for conveying a monetary amount. Inthe case of a tracking card, the card reader slot 34 detects theplayer's stored bank and applies that to the gaming machine beingplayed. The card reader slot 34 or reading device may be an opticalreader, a magnetic reader, or other type of reader. The card reader slot34 may have a slot provided in the gaming machine for receiving theinstrument. The card reader slot 34 may also have a communicationinterface (or control or connect to a communication interface) todigitally transfer tokens or indicia of credits or money via variousmethods such as RFID, tap, smart card, credit card, loyalty card, NFCand so on.

An electronic device may couple (by way of a wired or wirelessconnection) to the EGM 10 to transfer electronic data signals for playercredits and the like. For example, near field communication (NFC) may beused to couple to EGM 10 which may be configured with NFC enabledhardware. This is a non-limiting example of a communication technique.

A keypad 36 may accept player input, such as a personal identificationnumber (PIN) or any other player information. A display 38 above keypad36 displays a menu for instructions and other information and providesvisual feedback of the keys pressed.

Keypad 36 may be an input device such as a touchscreen, or dynamicdigital button panel, in accordance with some embodiments.

Player control buttons 39 may include any buttons or other controllersneeded to play the particular game or games offered by EGM 10 including,for example, a bet button, a repeat bet button, a spin reels (or play)button, a maximum bet button, a cash-out button, a display pay linesbutton, a display payout tables button, select icon buttons, and anyother suitable button. Buttons 39 may be replaced by a touch screen withvirtual buttons.

EGM 10 may also include a digital button panel. The digital button panelmay include various elements such as for example, a touch display,animated buttons, frame lights, and so on. The digital button panel mayhave different states, such as for example, standard play containing betsteps, bonus with feature layouts, point of sale, and so on. The digitalbutton panel may include a slider bar for adjusting thethree-dimensional panel. The digital button panel may include buttonsfor adjusting sounds and effects. The digital button panel may includebuttons for betting and selecting bonus games. The digital button panelmay include a game status display. The digital button panel may includeanimation. The buttons of the digital button panel may include a numberof different states, such as pressable but not activated, pressed andactive, inactive (not pressable), certain response or informationanimation, and so on. The digital button panel may receive playerinteraction commands, in some example embodiments.

EGM 10 may also include hardware configured to provide eye, motion orgesture tracking. For example, the EGM 10 may include at least one datacapture camera device, which may be one or more cameras that detect oneor more spectra of light, one or more sensors (e.g. optical sensor), ora combination thereof. The at least one data capture camera device maybe used for eye, gesture or motion tracking of player, such as detectingeye movement, eye gestures, player positions and movements, andgenerating signals defining x, y and z coordinates. For example, the atleast one data capture camera device may be used to implement trackingrecognition techniques to collect player eye gaze data, player eyegesture data, and player movement data. An example type of motiontracking is optical motion tracking. The motion tracking may include abody and head controller. The motion tracking may also include an eyecontroller. EGM 10 may implement eye-tracking recognition technologyusing cameras, sensors (e.g. optical sensor), data receivers and otherelectronic hardware to capture various forms of player input. The eyegaze, eye gesture, or motion by a player may interact with theinteractive game environment or may impact the type of graphicalanimation effect. Accordingly, EGM 10 may be configured to captureplayer eye gaze input, eye gesture input, and movement input as playerinteraction commands.

For example, the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, andplayer movement data defining eye movement, eye gestures, playerpositions and movements may be used to select, manipulate, or move gamecomponents. As another example, the player eye gaze data, player eyegesture data, and player movement data defining eye movement, eyegestures, player positions and movements may be used to change a view ofthe gaming surface or gaming component. A visible game component of thegame may be illustrated as a three-dimensional enhancement comingtowards the player. Another visible game component of the game may beillustrated as a three-dimensional enhancement moving away from theplayer. The player's head position may be used as a view guide for theat least one data capture camera device during a three-dimensionalenhancement. A player sitting directly in front of display 12, 14 maysee a different view than a player moving aside. The at least one datacapture camera device may also be used to detect occupancy of themachine or detect movement proximate to the machine.

Embodiments described herein are implemented by physical computerhardware embodiments. The embodiments described herein provide usefulphysical machines and particularly configured computer hardwarearrangements of computing devices, servers, electronic gaming terminals,processors, memory, networks, for example. The embodiments describedherein, for example, is directed to computer apparatuses, and methodsimplemented by computers through the processing of electronic datasignals.

Accordingly, EGM 10 is particularly configured to provide an interactivegame environment. The display device 12, 14 may display, via a userinterface, the interactive game environment and the viewing area havingone or more game components in accordance with a set of game data storedin a data store. The interactive game environment may be a 2Dinteractive game environment or a 3D interactive game environment, or acombination thereof.

A data capture camera device may capture player data, such as buttoninput, gesture input and so on. The data capture camera device mayinclude a camera, a sensor or other data capture electronic hardware. Insome embodiments, EGM 10 may include at least one data capture cameradevice to continuously monitor the eye gaze of a player to collectplayer eye gaze data. The player may provide input to the EGM 10 usingthe eye gaze of the player. For example, using the eye gaze of theplayer, which may be collected as player eye gaze data, the player mayselect an interactive game to play, interact with a game component, ortrigger a bonus interactive game.

Embodiments described herein involve computing devices, servers,electronic gaming terminals, receivers, transmitters, processors,memory, display, and networks particularly configured to implementvarious acts. The embodiments described herein are directed toelectronic machines adapted for processing and transformingelectromagnetic signals which represent various types of information.The embodiments described herein pervasively and integrally relate tomachines, and their uses; and the embodiments described herein have nomeaning or practical applicability outside their use with computerhardware, machines, a various hardware components.

As described herein, EGM 10 may be configured to provide an interactivegame environment. The interactive game environment may be a 2D or 3Dinteractive game environment. The interactive game environment mayprovide a plurality of game components or game symbols based on the gamedata. The game data may relate to a primary interactive game or a bonusinteractive game, or both. For example, the interactive game environmentmay comprise a 3D reel space that may have an active primary game matrixof a primary subset of game components. The bonus subset of gamecomponents may be different from the primary subset of game components.The player may view a viewing area of the interactive game environment,which may be a subset of the interactive game environment, on thedisplay device 12, 14. The interactive game environment or the viewingarea may be dynamically updated based on the eye gaze, eye gesture, ormovement of the player in real-time or near real-time. The update to theinteractive game environment or the viewing area may be a graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device 12, 14. The update tothe interactive game environment or the viewing area may be triggeredbased on the eye gaze, eye gesture, or movement of the player. Forexample, the update may be triggered by looking at a particular part ofthe viewing area for a pre-determined period of time, or looking atdifferent parts of the viewing area in a pre-determined sequence, orwidening or narrowing the eyes. The interactive game environment may beupdated dynamically and revealed by dynamic triggers from game contentof the primary interactive game in response to electronic data signalscollected and processed by EGM 10.

For an interactive game environment, the EGM 10 may include a displaydevice 12, 14 with auto stereoscopic 3D functionality. The EGM 10 mayinclude a touch screen display for receiving touch input data to defineplayer interaction commands. The EGM 10 may also include at least onedata capture camera device, for example, to further receive player inputto define player interaction commands. The EGM 10 may also includeseveral effects and frame lights. The 3D enhancements may be aninteractive game environment for additional game symbols.

EGM 10 may include an output device such as one or more speakers. Thespeakers may be located in various locations on the EGM 10 such as in alower portion or upper portion. The EGM 10 may have a chair or seatportion and the speakers may be included in the seat portion to create asurround sound effect for the player. The seat portion may allow foreasy upper body and head movement during play. Functions may becontrollable via an on screen game menu. The EGM 10 is configurable toprovide full control over all built-in functionality (lights, framelights, sounds, and so on).

EGM 10 may also include a plurality of effects lights and frame lights.The lights may be synchronized with enhancements of the game. The EGM 10may be configured to control color and brightness of lights. Additionalcustom animations (color cycle, blinking, etc.) may also be configuredby EGM 10. The custom animations may be triggered by certain gamingevents.

FIG. 2A is a block diagram of hardware components of EGM 10 according tosome embodiments. EGM 10 is shown linked to the casino's host system 41via network infrastructure. These hardware components are particularlyconfigured to provide at least one interactive game. These hardwarecomponents may be configured to provide at least one interactive gameand at least one bonus game.

A communications board 42 may contain circuitry for coupling the EGM 10to network. Communications board 42 may include a network interfaceallowing EGM 10 to communicate with other components, to access andconnect to network resources, to serve an application, to access otherapplications, and to perform other computing applications by connectingto a network (or multiple networks) capable of carrying data includingthe Internet, Ethernet, plain old telephone service (POTS) line, publicswitch telephone network (PSTN), integrated services digital network(ISDN), digital subscriber line (DSL), coaxial cable, fiber optics,satellite, mobile, wireless (e.g. WMAX), SS7 signaling network, fixedline, local area network, wide area network, and others, including anycombination of these. EGM 10 may communicate over a network using asuitable protocol, such as the G2S protocols.

Communications board 42 communicates, transmits and receives data usinga wireless transmitter, or it may be wired to a network, such as a localarea network running throughout the casino floor, for example.Communications board 42 may set up a communication link with a mastercontroller and may buffer data between the network and game controllerboard 44. Communications board 42 may also communicate with a networkserver, such as in accordance with the G2S standard, for exchanginginformation to carry out embodiments described herein.

Game controller board 44 includes memory and a processor for carryingout program instructions stored in the memory and for providing theinformation requested by the network. Game controller board 44 executesgame routines using game data stores in a data store accessible to thegame controller board 44, and cooperates with graphics processor 54 anddisplay controller 52 to provide games with enhanced interactive gamecomponents.

EGM 10 may include at least one data capture camera device forimplementing the gaming enhancements, in accordance with someembodiments. The EGM 10 may include the at least one data capture cameradevice, one or more sensors (e.g. optical sensor), or other hardwaredevice configured to capture and collect in real-time or near real-timedata relating to the eye gaze, eye gesture, or movement of the player,or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device may beused for eye gaze tracking, eye gesture tracking, motion tracking, andmovement recognition. The at least one data capture camera device maycollect data defining x, y and z coordinates representing eye gaze, eyegestures, and movement of the player.

In some examples, a game component may be illustrated as a 3Denhancement coming towards the player. Another game component may beillustrated as a 3D enhancement moving away from the player. Theplayer's head position may be used as a reference for the at least onedata capture camera device during a 3D enhancement. A player sittingdirectly in front of display 12, 14 may see a different view than aplayer moving aside. The at least one data capture camera device mayalso be used to detect occupancy of the EGM 10 or detect movementproximate to the EGM 10. The at least one data capture camera deviceand/or a sensor (e.g. an optical sensor) may also be configured todetect and track the position(s) of a player's eyes or more precisely,pupils, relative to the screen of the EGM 10.

The at least one data capture camera device may also be used to collectdata defining player eye movement, eye gestures, body gestures, headmovement, or other body movement. Players may move their eyes, theirbodies or portions of their body to interact with the interactive game.The at least one data capture camera device may collect data definingplayer eye movement, eye gestures, body gestures, head movement, orother body movement, process and transform the data into data defininggame interactions (e.g. selecting game components, focusing gamecomponents, magnifying game components, movement for game components),and update the rendering of the viewing area to provide a real-time ornear real-time graphical animation effect representative of the gameinteractions using the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data,player movement data, or any combination thereof. For example, theplayer's eyes may be tracked by the at least one data capture cameradevice (or another hardware component of EGM 10), so when the player'seyes move left, right, up or down, one or more game components ondisplay device 12, 14, may move in response to the player's eyemovements. The player may have to avoid obstacles, or possibly catch orcontact items to collect depending on the type of game. These movementswithin the game may be implemented based on the data derived fromcollected player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, player movementdata, or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device maytrack a position of each eye of a player relative to display device 12,14, as well as a direction of focus of the eyes and a point of focus onthe display device 12, 14, in real-time or near real-time. The focusdirection may be the direction at which the player's line of sighttravels or extends from his or her eyes to display device 12, 14. Thefocus point may be referred to as a gaze point and the focus directionmay sometimes be referred to as a gaze direction. In one example, thefocus direction and focus point can be determined based on various eyetracking data such as position(s) of a player's eyes, a position of hisor her head, position(s) and size(s) of the pupils, corneal reflectiondata, and/or size(s) of the irises. All of the above mentioned eyetracking or movement data, as well as the focus direction and focuspoint, may be examples of, and referred to as, player's eye movements orplayer movement data.

In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device maymonitor the eye gaze, eye gesture, and/or movement of two or morepeople, who may be two or more players of the interactive game, tocollect the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and/or playermovement data. The player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and/orplayer movement data may be used such that both players may be able toplay the interactive game simultaneously. The interactive game mayinclude aspects of both cooperative and competitive play.

A game component may be selected to move or manipulate with the player'seye movements. The gaming component may be selected by the player or bythe game. For example, the game outcome or state may determine whichsymbol to select for enhancement.

As previously described, the at least one data capture camera device maytrack a position of a player's eyes relative to display device 12, 14,as well as a focus direction and a focus point on the display device 12,14 of the player's eyes in real-time or near real-time. The focusdirection can be the direction at which the player's line of sighttravels or extends from his or her eyes to the display device 12, 14.The focus point may sometimes be referred to as a gaze point and thefocus direction may sometimes be referred to as a gaze direction. In oneexample, the focus direction and focus point can be determined based onvarious eye tracking data such as position(s) of a player's eyes, aposition of his or her head, position(s) and size(s) of the pupils,corneal reflection data, and/or size(s) of the irises. All of the abovementioned eye tracking or movement data, as well as the focus directionand focus point, may be instances of player movement data.

In addition, a focus point may extend to or encompass different visualfields visible to the player. For example, a foveal area may be a smallarea surrounding a fixation point on the display device 12, 14 directlyconnected by a (virtual) line of sight extending from the eyes of aplayer. This foveal area in the player's vision may generally appear tobe in sharp focus and may include one or more game components and thesurrounding area. A focus point may include the foveal area immediatelyadjacent to the fixation point directly connected by the (virtual) lineof sight extending from the player's eyes.

The player eye gaze data and player eye gesture data may relate to themovement of the player's eyes. For example, the player's eyes may moveor look to the left, which may trigger a corresponding movement of agame component within the game. The movement of the player's eyes mayalso trigger an updated view of the entire interactive game on thedisplay device 12, 14 to reflect the orientation of the player inrelation to the display device 12, 14. The player movement data may beassociated with movement of the body of the player, such as the player'shead, arms legs, or other part of the player's body. As a furtherexample, the player movement data may be associated with a gesture madeby the player, such as a gesture by a hand or a finger.

In one embodiment of the invention, the EGM 10 may be configured totarget, select, deselect, move, or rotate one or more game componentsbased on player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and playermovement data. For example, the EGM 10 may determine that a player hasgazed at (e.g. the focus point has remained more or less constant) apreviously unselected game component for three or more seconds, then theEGM 10 may select or highlight the game component, so the player mayknow that he or she may proceed to move or rotate the selected orhighlighted game component. In another example, the EGM 10 may determinethat after a player has selected a game component, the same player hasmoved his or her eyes to the right on a horizontal level for apredetermined length or period of time, then the EGM 10 may cause theselected game component to move to the right as well on a horizontallevel. Similarly, the EGM 10 may determine that the player has moved hisor her eyes down on a vertical level for a predetermined length orperiod of time, and then the EGM 10 may cause the selected gamecomponent to move to the bottom vertically.

Display controller 52 may control one or more of display device 12, 14using graphics processor 54 to display a viewing area that may includeone or more visible game components based on the game data of aninteractive game.

Display controller 52 may, in response to detection of the controlcommand from the game controller 44 based on the player eye gaze data,player eye gesture data, or player movement data, control display device12, 14 using graphics processor 54. Display controller 52 may update theviewing area to trigger a graphical animation effect displayed on one orboth of display device 12, 14 representative of a visual update to thevisible game components in the viewing area, the visual update based onthe player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, or player movementdata.

In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device and thedisplay device 12, 14 may be calibrated. Calibration of the at least onedata capture camera device and the display device may be desirablebecause the eyes of each player using the EGM 10 may be physicallydifferent, such as the shape and location of the player's eyes, and thecapability for each player to see. Each player may also stand at adifferent position relative to the EGM 10.

The at least one data capture camera device may be calibrated by thegame controller 44 by detecting the movement of the player's eyes. Insome embodiments, the display controller 52 may control the displaydevice 12, 14 to display one or more calibration symbols. There may beone calibration symbol that appears on the display device 12, 14 at onetime, or more than one calibration symbol may appear on the displaydevice 12, 14 at one time. The player may be prompted by text, noise,graphical animation effect, or any combination thereof, to direct theireye gaze to one or more of the calibration symbols. The at least onedata capture camera device may monitor the eye gaze of the playerlooking at the one or more calibration symbols and a distance of theplayer's eyes relative to the EGM 10 to collect calibration data. Basedon the eye gaze corresponding to the player looking at differentcalibration symbols, the at least one data capture camera device mayrecord data associated with how the player's eyes rotate to look fromone position on the display device 12, 14 to a second position on thedisplay device 12, 14. The game controller 44 may calibrate the at leastone data capture camera device based on the calibration data.

For example, as shown in FIG. 3, before the player 310 plays theinteractive game, the EGM 10 may notify the player 310 that the at leastone data capture camera device (not shown) and the display device 12, 14may be calibrated. The display controller 52 may cause the displaydevice 12, 14 to display one or more calibration symbols 330. In FIG. 3,nine calibration symbols 330 “A” through “I” are displayed, but thecalibration symbols 330 may be any other symbols. For example, thecalibration symbols 330 may be one or more game components related tothe interactive game to be played. The calibration symbols 330 may bedisplayed on any portion of the display device 12, 14. The player 310may be prompted to look at the calibration symbols in a certain order.The at least one data capture camera device may monitor the eye gaze 320of the player 310 looking at the calibration symbols 330 and thedistance of the player's eyes relative to the EGM 10 to collect thecalibration data. When the at least one data capture camera devicecollects player eye gaze data in real-time, the game controller 44 maycompare the player eye gaze data with the calibration data in real-timeto determine the angle at which that the player's eyes are looking.

The display controller 52 may calibrate the display device 12, 14 usingthe graphics processor 54 based on the calibration data collected by theat least one data capture camera device. The at least one data capturecamera device may monitor the eye gaze of the player to collectcalibration data as described herein. The display controller 52 maycalibrate the display device 12, 14 using the graphics processor 54 todisplay a certain resolution on the display device 12, 14.

In some embodiments, the game controller 44 may determine the locationof the eye gaze relative to the viewing area based on the position ofthe player's eyes relative to the EGM 10 and an angle of the player'seyes. As shown in FIG. 4, the at least one data capture camera device420 may monitor the position of the player's eyes 430 relative to EGM10, and may also monitor the angle of the player's eyes 430 to collectdisplay mapping data. The angle of the player's eyes may be determinedbased on the calibration of the at least one data capture camera device420 described herein. The angle of the player's eyes may define thefocus of the eye gaze, which may be a line of sight relative to thedisplay device 12, 14. Based on the display mapping data, which maycomprise the position of the player's eyes relative to the EGM 10 and anangle of the player's eyes or the line of sight relative, the gamecontroller 44 may be configured to determine the direction and length ofa virtual array 440 projecting from the player's eyes 430. Virtual array440 may represent the eye gaze of the player 410. The game controller 44may determine where the virtual array 440 intersects with the displaydevice 12, 14. The intersection of virtual array 440 and display device12, 14 may represent where the eye gaze of the player 410 is focused onthe display device 12, 14. The display device 12, 14 may be controlledby display controller 52 to display the viewing area. The gamecontroller 44 may identify coordinates on the display device 12, 14corresponding to the player eye gaze data and may map the coordinates tothe viewing area to determine the eye gaze of the player relative to theviewing area. EGM 10 may determine the location of the viewing area thatthe player 410 is looking at, which may be useful for EGM 10 todetermine how the player 410 is interacting with the interactive game.In some embodiments, the eye gaze of the player may be expressed in 2Dor 3D and may be mapped to a 2D or 3D viewing area, depending on whetherthe interactive game is a 2D interactive game or a 3D interactive game.

Peripheral devices/boards communicate with the game controller board 44via a bus 46 using, for example, an RS-232 interface. Such peripheralsmay include a bill validator 47, a coin detector 48, a smart card readeror other type of credit card reader 49, and player control inputs 50(such as buttons or a touch screen).

Player input or control device 50 may include the keypad, the buttons,touchscreen display, gesture tracking hardware, and data capture deviceas described herein. Other peripherals may be one or more cameras usedfor collecting player input data, or other player movement or gesturedata that may be used to trigger player interaction commands. Displaydevice 12, 14 may be a touch sensitive display device. Player controlinput device 50 may be integrated with display device 12, 14 to detectplayer interaction input at the display device 12, 14.

Game controller board 44 may also control one or more devices thatproduce the game output including audio and video output associated witha particular game that is presented to the user. For example, audioboard 51 may convert coded signals into analog signals for drivingspeakers.

Game controller board 44 may be coupled to an electronic data storestoring game data for one or more interactive games. The game data maybe for a primary interactive game and/or a bonus interactive game. Thegame data may, for example, include a set of game instructions for eachof the one or more interactive games. The electronic data store mayreside in a data storage device, e.g., a hard disk drive, a solid statedrive, or the like. Such a data storage device may be included in EGM10, or may reside at host system 41. In some embodiments, the electronicdata store storing game data may reside in the cloud.

Card reader 49 reads cards for player and credit information forcashless gaming. Card reader 49 may read a magnetic code on aconventional player tracking card, where the code uniquely identifiesthe player to a host system at the venue. The code is cross-referencedby host system 41 to any data related to the player, and such data mayaffect the games offered to the player by the gaming terminal. Cardreader 49 may also include an optical reader and printer for reading andprinting coded barcodes and other information on a paper ticket. A cardmay also include credentials that enable host system 41 to access one ormore accounts associated with a user. The account may be debited basedon wagers by a user and credited based on a win.

Graphics processor 54 may be configured to generate and render animationgame enhancements based on game data as directed by game controllerboard 44. The game enhancements may involve an interactive gameenvironment that may provide one or more game components and graphicalanimation effects. Graphics processor 54 may be a specialized electroniccircuit designed for image processing (including 2D and 3D imageprocessing in some examples) in order to manipulate and transform datastored in memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame bufferfor output to the display by way of display controller 52. Graphicsprocessor 54 may redraw various game enhancements as they dynamicallyupdate. Graphics processor 54 may cooperate with game controller board44 and display controller 52 to generate and render enhancements asdescribed herein. Graphics processor 54 may generate an interactive gameenvironment that may provide one or more game components, for example, a3D reel space of a plurality of game components. The graphics processor54 may generate graphical animation effects to represent a visual updateto the game components in the viewing area, the visual update based onthe player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, player movement data,or any combination thereof.

Display controller 52 may require a high data transfer rate and mayconvert coded signals to pixel signals for the display. Displaycontroller 52 and audio board 51 may be directly connected to parallelports on the game controller board 44. The electronics on the variousboards may be combined onto a single board. Display controller 52 maycontrol output to one or more display device 12, 14 (e.g. an electronictouch sensitive display device). Display controller 52 may cooperatewith graphics processor 54 to render animation enhancements on displaydevice 12, 14.

Display controller 52 may be configured to interact with graphicsprocessor 54 to control the display device 12, 14 to display a viewingarea defining the interactive game environment including navigation todifferent views of the interactive game environment. Player controlinputs 50 and the at least one data capture camera device maycontinuously detect player interaction commands to interact withinteractive game environment. For example, the player may move a gamecomponent to a preferred position, select a game component, ormanipulate the display of the game components.

In some embodiments, display controller 52 may control the displaydevice 12, 14 using the graphics processor 54 to display the viewingarea that may have one or more game components. In response to thedetection of the control command based on the player eye gaze data,player eye gesture data, player movement data, or any combinationthereof, display controller 52 may trigger a graphical animation effectto represent a visual update to the game components in the viewing area.

While playing an interactive game on the EGM 10, the eyes of a playermay move suddenly without the player being conscious of the movement.The eyes of the player may demonstrate subconscious, quick, and shortmovements, even if the player is not actively controlling their eyes tomove in this manner. These subconscious, quick, and short eye movementsmay affect the game controller's determination of the eye gaze of theplayer based on the player eye gaze data. Accurate processing of theplayer eye gaze data related to these subconscious, quick, and short eyemovements may result in detecting the location of the eye gaze of theplayer representative of eye twitching or erratic eye movements notreflective of the player's intended eye gaze, and may be distracting tothe player. It may be useful for the player eye gaze data to be filteredto not reflect these quick and short eye movements, for example, so thedetermination of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing areaby the game controller reflects the intended eye gaze of the player. Itmay also be useful for the portion of the player eye gaze datarepresentative of the subconscious, quick, and short eye movements tohave less determinative effect on the determined location of the eyegaze of the player. In some embodiments, the game controller 44 maydefine a filter movement threshold, wherein the game controller, priorto determining a location of the eye gaze of the player relative to theviewing area using the player eye gaze data collected by the at leastone data capture camera device and updating the rendering of the viewingarea, determines that the player eye gaze meets the filter movementthreshold. The at least one data capture camera device may collectplayer eye gaze data.

The game controller 44 may process the player eye gaze data tocorrespond with a location on the viewing area. The game controller 44may determine where the player is looking at on the viewing area basedon a certain number of previously recorded player eye gaze data, forexample, by tracking the last ten eye gaze positions to average outwhere on the viewing area the player is looking. The game controller 44may limit the amount of previously recorded player eye gaze data that isused to determine where on the viewing area the player is looking. Thegame controller 44 may filter out, or “smooth out”, player eye gaze dataoutside of the pre-determined filter movement threshold, which mayrepresent sudden and subconscious eye movement. The game controller 44may map the eye gaze of the player to the viewing area using at least aportion of the filtered player eye gaze data to determine the locationof the viewing area at which the player is looking, in order to map theplayer's eye gaze to the viewing area.

As another example, the game controller 44 may delay in processing theplayer eye gaze data associated with subconscious, quick, and short eyemovements, so the detected location of the eye gaze of the player doesnot represent twitching or sudden unconscious eye movements which maytrigger animation effects causing an unpleasant user experience. Largeeye motions may also be associated with more delay in processing andmore smoothing. In some embodiments, the game controller may partitionthe player eye gaze data associated with large eye motions into datarepresentative of shorter eye motions. The game controller 44 mayanalyze the player eye gaze data to determine which data is associatedwith subconscious eye movement or with conscious eye movement based on afilter movement threshold, a time threshold, movement threshold, or anycombination thereof. Player eye gaze data associated with quick eyemovements over a certain period of time may be determined by the gamecontroller 44 to be subconscious eye movement. The game controller 44may delay in processing this portion of data so the detected location ofthe eye gaze of the player may be stable and may not distract theplayer, or the game controller may filter out this data and not processit. Player eye gaze data associated with large eye movements over acertain period of time may be determined by the game controller to bethe player losing focus or being distracted. The game controller 44 maysimilarly delay in processing this portion of data or not process thisportion of data. In some embodiments, game controller 44 may filter out,or “smooth out” player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, playermovement data, or a combination thereof, that may exceed the filtermovement threshold, in the manner described herein.

The locations where EGM 10 may be used may have a variety of lightingconditions. For example, EGM 10 may be used in a restaurant, a hotellobby, an airport, and a casino. It may be brighter in some locationsand darker in other locations, or the light quality may fluctuate frombrightness to darkness. In some embodiments, EGM 10 may include aninfrared light source that illuminates the player. The infrared lightsources may not interfere with the eyes of the player. In someembodiments, the at least one data capture camera device may be aninfrared data capture camera device. The infrared data capture cameradevice may collect player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, andplayer movement data without being affected by the lighting conditionsof the locations where EGM 10 may be used. In some embodiments, EGM 10may have a plurality of light sources providing a plurality of spectraof light, and the at least one data capture camera device may be aplurality of data capture camera devices configured to detect aplurality of spectra of light, so the at least one data capture cameradevice may collect player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, andplayer movement data without being affected by the lighting conditionsof the locations where EGM 10 may be used.

A player that plays an interactive game using EGM 10 may be wearingglasses. The glasses of the player may cause refractions of the lightthat illuminates the player. This may affect the at least one datacapture camera device while it monitors the eye gaze, eye gesture,and/or movement of the player. Glasses that comprise an infrared filtermay also interfere with or affect the at least one data capture cameradevice while it monitors the eye gaze, eye gesture, and/or movement ofthe player. EGM 10 may recognize that the player may be wearing glasses.For example, as the interactive game commences, display controller 52may display on display device 12, 14 using graphics processor 54 aquestion asking the player if he or she is wearing glasses. The playermay provide input indicating whether he or she is wearing glasses, suchas, but not limited to, with an audio command, touch command, or withthe player's eye gaze. As other example, the game controller 44 mayrecognize, based on processing the player eye gaze data from the atleast one data capture camera device, that the light illuminating theplayer may be refracted, and may determine that the player is wearingglasses. When EGM 10 recognizes that the player may be wearing glasses,the game controller 44 may perform additional and/or more stringentfiltering functions as described herein to compromise for the player'suse of glasses and to accommodate the refractions of the light thatilluminates the player. For example, the filter movement threshold maybe set to be higher for players who wear glasses.

In some embodiments, the game controller 44 may be configured to predictthe location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing areaat a future time using the player eye gaze data to facilitate dynamicupdate to the rendering of the viewing area. For example, if the gamecontroller 44 determines that a player is changing their gaze on ahorizontal plane from the left to the right, the game controller 44 maypredict that the player may look at a game component displayed on theright side of display device 12, 14. The ability for game controller 44to predict the location of the eye gaze of the player at a future timemay be useful to rule out inaccurate readings. For example, while aplayer plays a game, the at least one data capture camera device mayincorrectly detect a button on the clothing of a player to be theplayer's eyes, and may collect incorrect player eye gaze data based onthe button. Based on the location of the eye gaze predicted by gamecontroller 44, the incorrect player eye gaze data may be ruled out bygame controller 44, and may not be processed by game controller 44 totrigger a control command to update the viewing area with a graphicalanimation effect. As another example, by predicting the location of theeye gaze, the display controller 52 may adjust the resolution of thedisplay device 12, 14 where the player is not expected to be looking.This may be useful because the EGM 10 may have limited processing power.Not all visible game components may require high resolution. Only thegame components that the player is looking at may require highresolution. The ability for game controller 44 to predict the locationof the eye gaze of the player may allow display controller 52 to reducethe resolution of game components that the player may not be looking at,which may increase the efficiency of the processing power of the EGM 10.

In some embodiments, EGM 10 may apply one or more predictive techniquesto develop a plurality of predicted points of eye gaze, which, forexample, may approximate and/or estimate where a player's gaze willtravel next. These predictions may also be provided for use by graphicsprocessor 54 and/or game controller board 44 in relation with smoothingout and/or accounting for removal of transient readings, undesirableartefacts and/or inadvertent gaze positions. In some embodiments, thepredictions may also be used to improve the performance of EGM 10 inrelation to gaze capture and/or processing thereof, by, for example,applying heuristic techniques to reduce the number of computationsand/or capture frequency by relying on predictions to interpolate and/orextrapolate between gaze positions captured.

For example, when a player looks at a location of a viewing area in aninteractive game, the EGM 10 may record where they were looking and whatevents are being displayed to the player (e.g., as first movementsand/or gaze positions). When an event is triggered a second time, theplayer's gaze movements are recorded into a data storage system, butthen compared to the first movements. A comparison may include, forexample, comparing positions, velocities, start and end positions,accelerations, etc. as between various gaze movements.

For example, for each duration, a path and end location may becalculated, and a predicted pathway may be developed based on theselocations and stored in a data storage.

As the event is triggered more times (e.g., more iterations occur), thedata may be accumulated and a predictive pathing model can be built.Once the predictive pathing model is developed, when the event istriggered, the EGM 10 could reduce the frequency of the gaze systemupdates and use the recorded pathing and final location to be used toreduce the overall computing resources required, for example (e.g.,performing various steps of interpolation, extrapolation using thepredictive pathing model).

Accordingly, predictive pathing can also be used to reduce errors beingproduced by the gaze system. Gaze systems may utilize cameras and edgedetection to determine where the player is looking, and many utilize useinfra-red light to see the player's eye. If there are other infra-redlight sources, for example, such sources may cause the gaze camera to beimpacted and may reduce accuracy of the gaze detection. Accordingly,predictive pathing may be useful to reduce error in similar situationswhere there may otherwise be recorded errors and/or aberrations.

Further, predictions may not be limited only to a current player. Forexample, aggregate information from a large population of players may beaggregated together to refine the model for predictive pathing. Themodel may, for example, take into consideration the type of player, thetype of interaction the player is having with the EGM 10, thecharacteristics of the player (e.g., height, gender, angle ofincidence), among others.

In some embodiments, the predictive pathing model may also be utilizedin the context of a game. For example, if the game includes aspectswhich may be selectively triggered based on various inputs, an input fortriggering may include predicted pathways. In some embodiments, objectsand/or layers may be modified and/or altered.

In some embodiments, the player may play an interactive game with EGM 10in communication with a mobile device. Depending on the game data of theinteractive game, the player may play the interactive game on EGM 10, onthe mobile device, or on both. The player may play the interactive gameusing their eye gaze, eye gestures, movement, the interface of themobile device, or any combination thereof. The player may play theinteractive game using only the eye gaze of the player while the playerholds on to the mobile device with one or more hands. The mobile devicemay, for example, be a computer, personal digital assistant, laptop,tablet, smart phone, media player, electronic reading device, datacommunication device, or a wearable device, such as Google™. Glass,virtual reality device, or any combination thereof. The mobile devicemay be a custom mobile device that may be in communication with EGM 10.The mobile device may be operable by a user and may be any portable,networked (wired or wireless) computing device including a processor andmemory and suitable for facilitating communication between one or morecomputing applications of mobile device (e.g. a computing applicationinstalled on or running on the mobile device). A mobile device may be atwo-way communication device with advanced data communicationcapabilities having the capability to communicate with other computersystems and devices. The mobile device may include the capability fordata communications and may also include the capability for voicecommunications, in some example embodiments. The mobile device may haveat least one data capture camera device to continuously monitor the eyegaze, eye gesture, or movement of the player and collect player eye gazedata, player eye gesture data, or player movement data.

EGM 10 may include a wireless transceiver that may communicate with themobile device, for example using standard WiFi or Bluetooth, or otherprotocol based on the wireless communication capabilities of the mobiledevice. The player may be able to play the interactive game while themobile device is in communication with EGM 10. When connected to the EGM10, the viewing area may be displayed on display device 12, 14 or on thescreen of the mobile device, or both. The at least one data capturecamera device on the mobile device may collect player eye gaze data,player eye gesture data, or player movement data, which may be processedby a game controller 44 of EGM 10 to determine a location of the eyegaze of the player relative to the viewing area displayed on the mobiledevice. The game controller 44 may trigger a control command to thedisplay controller 52 to dynamically update the rendering of the viewingarea based on the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, orplayer movement data. In response to the control command from the gamecontroller 44, the display controller 52 may control the display device12, 14, the mobile device, or both, in real-time or near real-time usingthe graphics processor 54 to dynamically update the rendering of theviewing area to provide a real-time or near real-time graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device 12, 14 or the mobiledevice representative of a visual update to the game components in theviewing area, the visual update based on the player eye gaze data,player eye gesture data, or player movement data.

In some embodiments, the mobile device in communication with EGM 10 maybe configured to be a display device that compliments display device 12,14 when playing the interactive game. The player may interact with theinteractive game through the interface of the mobile device, through theEGM 10, or any combination thereof. The interactive game environment,viewing area, and game components of the interactive game may bedisplayed on the mobile device, display device 12, 14, or anycombination thereof.

In some embodiments, a terminal may be connected to one or more EGM 10over a network. The terminal may serve as a registration terminal forsetting up the communication between the mobile device and any EGM 10connected to the network. Therefore, the player does not have tophysically go to EGM 10 to set up the link and play the interactive gameassociated with EGM 10.

Host system 41 may store account data for players. EGM 10 maycommunicate with host system 41 to update such account data, forexample, based on wins and losses. In an embodiment, host system 41stores the aforementioned game data, and EGM 10 may retrieve such gamedata from host system 41 during operation.

In some embodiments, the electronics on the various boards describedherein may be combined onto a single board. Similarly, in someembodiments, the electronics on the various controllers and processorsdescribed herein may be integrated. For example, the processor of gamecontroller board 44 and graphics processor 54 may be a single integratedchip.

EGM 10 may be configured to provide one or more player eye gaze, eyegesture, or movement interactions to one or more games playable at EGM10. The enhancements may be to a primary interactive game, secondaryinteractive game, bonus interactive game, or combination thereof.

FIG. 2B illustrates an online implementation of a gaming system that maycontinuously monitor the eye gaze of a player as described herein. Theeye gaze of the player may be monitored and/or predicted such that datarelating to tracked positions, trajectories, etc. may be obtained. Datamay be processed to obtain further information, such as variousderivatives of eye gaze data, including, for example, velocity,acceleration, snap, and jerk. The eye gaze data may be processed (e.g.,smoothed out) to remove undesirable characteristics, such as artefacts,transient movements, vibrations, and inconsistencies caused by headmovements, blinking, eye irregularities, eyelid obstruction, etc.

The gaming system may be an online gaming device (which may be anexample implementation of an EGM). As depicted, the gaming systemincludes a gaming server 40 and a gaming device 35 connected via network37.

In some embodiments, gaming server 40 and gaming device 35 cooperate toimplement the functionality of EGM 10, described above. So, aspects andtechnical features of EGM 10 may be implemented in part at gaming device35, and in part at gaming server 40.

Gaming server 40 may be configured to enable online gaming, and mayinclude game data and game logic to implement the games and enhancementsdisclosed herein. For example, gaming server 40 may include a playerinput engine configured to process player input and respond according togame rules. Gaming server 40 may include a graphics engine configured togenerate the interactive game environment as disclosed herein. In someembodiments, gaming server 40 may provide rendering instructions andgraphics data to gaming device 35 so that graphics may be rendered atgaming device 35.

Gaming server 40 may also include a movement recognition engine that maybe used to process and interpret collected player eye gaze data, playereye gesture data, and player movement data, to transform the data intodata defining manipulations and player interaction commands.

Network 37 may be any network (or multiple networks) capable of carryingdata including the Internet, Ethernet, POTS line, PSTN, ISDN, DSL,coaxial cable, fiber optics, satellite, mobile, wireless (e.g. WMAX),SS7 signaling network, fixed line, local area network, wide areanetwork, and others, including any combination of these.

Gaming device 35 may be particularly configured with hardware andsoftware to interact with gaming server 40 via network 37 to implementgaming functionality and render 2D or 3D enhancements, as describedherein. For simplicity, only one gaming device 35 is shown but anelectronic gaming system may include one or more gaming devices 35operable by different players. Gaming device 35 may be implemented usingone or more processors and one or more data stores configured withdatabase(s) or file system(s), or using multiple devices or groups ofstorage devices distributed over a wide geographic area and connectedvia a network (which may be referred to as “cloud computing”). Aspectsand technical features or EGM 10 may be implemented using gaming device35.

Gaming device 35 may reside on any networked computing device, such as apersonal computer, workstation, server, portable computer, mobiledevice, personal digital assistant, laptop, tablet, smart phone, aninteractive television, video display terminals, gaming consoles,electronic reading device, and portable electronic devices or acombination of these.

Gaming device 35 may include any type of processor, such as, forexample, any type of general-purpose microprocessor or microcontroller,a digital signal processing (DSP) processor, an integrated circuit, afield programmable gate array (FPGA), a reconfigurable processor, aprogrammable read-only memory (PROM), or any combination thereof. Gamingdevice 35 may include any type of computer memory that is located eitherinternally or externally such as, for example, random-access memory(RAM), read-only memory (ROM), compact disc read-only memory (CDROM),electro-optical memory, magneto-optical memory, erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), and electrically-erasable programmableread-only memory (EEPROM), Ferroelectric RAM (FRAM) or the like.

Gaming device 35 is operable to register and authenticate users (using alogin, unique identifier, and password for example) prior to providingaccess to applications, a local network, network resources, othernetworks and network security devices. The computing device may serveone user or multiple users.

Gaming device 35 may include one or more input devices (e.g. playercontrol inputs 50), such as a keyboard, mouse, camera, touch screen anda microphone, and may also include one or more output devices such as adisplay screen (with 3D capabilities) and a speaker. Gaming device 35has a network interface in order to communicate with other components,to access and connect to network resources, to serve an application andother applications, and perform other computing applications.

Gaming device 35 connects to gaming server 40 by way of network 37 toaccess technical 2D and 3D enhancements to games as described herein.Multiple gaming devices 35 may connect to gaming server 40, each gamingdevice 35 operated by a respective player.

Gaming device 35 may be configured to connect to one or more othergaming devices through, for example, network 37. In some embodiments,the gaming server 40 may be utilized to coordinate the gaming devices35. Where gaming devices 35 may be utilized to facilitate the playing ofa same game, such as an interactive game, wherein the interactive gameincludes at interaction between activities performed by the players onthe gaming devices 35, various elements of information may becommunicated across network 37 and/or server 40. For example, theelements of information may include player eye gaze data, player eyegesture data, player movement data, and/or the viewing area displayed onthe gaming device 35. This information may be used by each of the gamingdevices 35 to provide and/or display interfaces that take intoconsideration the received data from another gaming device 35. Thegaming devices 35 may be configured for cooperative and/or competitiveplay (or a combination thereof) between the players in relation tovarious game objectives, events, and/or triggers.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method 500 implemented by EGM 10 usingvarious components of EGM 10. For simplicity of illustration, method 500will be described with reference to FIG. 2A and EGM 10 but it may beimplement using gaming device 35, game server 40 or a combinationthereof.

As shown, EGM 10 may include a card reader 34 to identify a monetaryamount conveyed by a player to the electronic gaming machine.

EGM 10 may include at least one data storage device storing game datafor at least one interactive game or at least one bonus interactivegame, or both.

EGM 10 may include graphics processor 54 to generate an interactive gameenvironment and define a viewing area as a subset of the interactivegame environment. The viewing area may have a plurality of gamecomponents based on the game data.

EGM 10 may include display device 12, 14 to display via a user interfacethe viewing area having the plurality of game components.

EGM 10 may include display controller 52 to control rendering of theviewing area on the display device 12, 14 using the graphics processor54.

EGM 10 may include at least one data capture camera device tocontinuously monitor eye gaze of a player to collect player eye gazedata.

EGM 10 may include a game controller 44 for determining a location ofthe eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area using the playereye gaze data and triggering a control command to the display controller52 to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area based on theplayer eye gaze data.

In response to detection of the control command, the display controller52 controls the display device 12, 14 in real-time or near real-timeusing the graphics processor 54 to dynamically update the rendering ofthe viewing area to provide a real-time or near real-time graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device 12, 14 representativeof a visual update to the visible game components in the viewing area,the visual update based on the player eye gaze data.

In response to an outcome of the interactive game, the card reader 34updates the monetary amount.

At 502 (FIG. 5), the at least one data capture camera device and thedisplay device 12, 14 may be calibrated by game controller 44 anddisplay controller 52 as described herein.

At 504 (FIG. 5), the graphics processor 54 may generate the interactivegame environment in accordance with the set of game rules using the gamedata and define a viewing area as a subset of the interactive gameenvironment. The viewing area may have a plurality of visible gamecomponents.

At 506 (FIG. 5), display controller 52 may control the display device12, 14 may display via a user interface the viewing area having theplurality of visible game components.

At 508 (FIG. 5), the at least one data capture camera device maycontinuously monitor the eye gaze, eye gesture, and/or movement tocollect player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and/or playermovement data.

At 510 (FIG. 5), the game controller 44 may determine a location of theeye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area as described hereinusing the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and/or playermovement data and trigger a control command to the display controller 52to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area based on theplayer eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, and/or player movementdata.

At 512 (FIG. 5), display controller 52 may, in response to detection ofthe control command, control the display device 12, 14 using thegraphics processor 54 to dynamically update the rendering of the viewingarea to provide a real-time or near real-time graphical animation effectdisplayed on the display device 12, 14 representative of a visual updateto the visible game components in the viewing area. The visual updatemay be based on the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data,and/or player movement data.

At 514 (FIG. 5), display controller 52 may trigger a winning outcome ofthe game for provision of an award based on the interactions of theplayer and the game, which may be associated with the player eye gazedata, the player eye gesture data, and/or the player movement data. Thecard reader 34 may update the monetary amount.

In some embodiments, the EGM 10 may recognize potential playersproximate to the EGM 10. As shown in FIG. 6, the at least one datacapture camera device may continuously monitor an area proximate to theEGM 10 to collect proximity data. The game controller 44 may process theproximity data to detect if a person is proximate to the EGM 10. If aperson is detected proximate to the EGM 10, then the display controller52 controls the display device 12, 14 to display an advertisement. Theability for EGM 10 to recognize potential players proximate to the EGM10 and commence active self-promotion is useful to gain a competitiveadvantage over other gaming machines. It may also be useful forwelcoming and encouraging players to play the game and provide theplayer with a sense of astonishment. In contrast to a gaming machinethat may interact with a player after the player has inserted a ticket,pressed a button, or touched a screen, EGM 10 actively starts theplayer's decision-making process to interact with EGM 10 sooner.

In some embodiments, the display controller 52 may render agaze-sensitive user interface on the display device 12, 14, wherein thegame controller 44 detects the location of the eye gaze of the playerrelative to the viewing area using the player eye gaze data, andtriggers the control command to display controller 52 to dynamicallyupdate the rendering of the viewing area to provide a real-time or nearreal-time the graphical animation effect displayed on the display device12, 14 representative of a visual update to the gaze-sensitive userinterface. For example, display controller 52 may control display device12, 14 to display a gaze-sensitive user interface as shown in FIG. 7Aand FIG. 7B. The player may gaze at the one or more visible gamecomponents 710 at the top of the display device 12, 14, and the displaycontroller 52 may cause a graphical animation effect to be displayedrepresentative of reducing the size of or hiding an options menu 720 atthe bottom of the display device 12, 14.

As shown in FIG. 7A, the options menu 720 may be small and out of theway. As the options menu 720 is being hidden, display controller 52 maycause another graphical animation effect to be displayed representativeof enlarging the one or more visible game components 710 to use theportion of the display device 12, 14 vacated by the options menu 720. Asanother example, as illustrated in FIG. 7B, the player may gaze at thebottom of the display device 12, 14, which may cause the options menu720 to be revealed and additional options may appear on screen. When theoption menu 720 is revealed, the one or more visible game components 710may reduce in size to accommodate the options menu 720. The player maygaze at a specific area of display device 12, 14, and additionalinformation may be displayed on display device 12, 14. Even though theEGM 10 may have one or two display device 12, 14, a gaze-sensitive userinterface may effectively increase the size of the display devicesavailable to EGM 10. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 7A and 7B,display device 12, 14 may display one or more visible game components710 and an options menu 720 without requiring an increase in size of thedisplay device 12, 14. The gaze-sensitive user interface may optimizethe use of the limited space available on display device 12, 14. Bymonitoring the eye gaze of the player, EGM 10 may demonstrate contextawareness of what the player is looking at. For example, the EGM 10 maydetect when the player is distracted by detecting whether the eye gazeof the player is on the display device 12, 14.

EGM 10 may reward a player for maintaining their eye gaze on positivegame aspects. For example, the at least one data capture display devicemay collect player eye gaze data that may indicate that the player islooking at a particular positive game component, such as, but notlimited to, a positive game component representative of the rewarding ofpoints, credits, prizes, or a winning line on a reel game. The displaycontroller 52 may control the display device 12, 14 to display agraphical animation effect to enhance the positive game component withadditional fanfare, for example, a special particle effect, fireworks,additional resolution and/or size of the positive game component,greater colour contrast and brightness, or lights and noises. In someembodiments, the graphical animation effect may correlate with theamount of time the player has maintained their eye gaze on the positivegame component. The longer the player focuses their eye gaze on thepositive game component, the more graphical animation effects may bedisplayed by display controller 52 on display device 12, 14 and/or theduration of the graphical animation effects may be extended.

The EGM 10 may include a display device 12, 14 with auto stereoscopic 3Dfunctionality. As shown in FIG. 8, the player may interact with a gamecomponent presented on a display device 12, 14 with auto stereoscopic 3Dfunctionality. The game component may appear to be hovering. The playermay interact with the game component with the eye gaze of the player.For example, the focus of the eye gaze may cause the display controller52 to control display device 12, 14 with auto stereoscopic 3Dfunctionality to provide a graphical animation effect representative ofrotating the game component. The EGM 10 that may have a display device12, 14 with auto stereoscopic 3D functionality may allow a player tointeract with the interactive game without their hands. This may beuseful to not distract from or spoil the 3D effect provided by thedisplay device 12, 14 with auto stereoscopic 3D functionality. Where thedisplay device is a stereoscopic display device, the graphics processor54 may generate left and right eye images based on a selectedthree-dimensional intensity level, and the game controller 44 maytrigger the control command to the display controller 52 to dynamicallyupdate the rendering of the left and right eye images based on theplayer eye gaze data.

Tracking the eye gaze, eye gesture, and movement of a player may beimplemented for a variety of interactive games and graphical animationeffects. For example, the game may be a game with a reel space and gamesymbols. As another example, the game may be a game to focus eye gaze ona game component. The eye gaze of the player on display device 12, 14may be implemented as a graphical animation effect to find and reveal ahidden or obscured game component. As yet another example, the gamecomponent manipulated by the player's eye gaze, eye gesture, andmovement may be a virtual avatar. The virtual avatar may be navigated inthe game using the player eye gaze data, player eye gesture data, playermovement data, or any combination thereof, to avoid obstacles andcollect rewards.

In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect displayed on thedisplay device 12, 14 may change the focus of a game component. Othergame components that may be closer or farther from the game componentthat the player is focusing on may be out of focus. Other gamecomponents on the same plane as the game component that the player isfocusing on may be in focus.

In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and visual updatemay focus on a portion of a visible game component and blur anotherportion of a visible game component. The game component that the playeris focusing on may be rendered with higher detail, higher polygon count,and/or higher texture resolution. Other game components may be renderedat a lower detail as they are not being focused on by the player. Thismay increase the efficiency of the limited processing power of EGM 10.

In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and the visualupdate magnifies a portion of the visible game components. For example,a visible game component or a portion of a visible game componentdisplayed on display device 12, 14 may be rendered and updated to bemagnified by display controller 52 and graphics processor 54 when theplayer's eye gaze focuses on the game component. The game controller 44may process player eye gaze data collected by the at least one datacapture camera device to determine when the player is focusing on a gamecomponent to be enlarged. This may be useful for a player with poorvision to have an engaging gaming experience while using EGM 10.

In some embodiments, the graphics processor 54 may generate aninteractive game environment with a set of game rules using game data,such that there may be one or more invisible game components. Thegraphics processor 54 may define a viewing area as a subset of theinteractive game environment, which may contain one or more invisiblegame components. The display controller 52 may control the displaydevice 12, 14 in real-time or near real-time using the graphicsprocessor 54 to update the rendering of the viewing area to provide areal-time or near real-time graphical animation effect representative ofrendering visible at least a portion of the invisible game components inthe viewing area. This may allow more game components to be displayed onthe display device 12, 14, which may have finite size. For example, EGM10 may provide a privacy mode for the player. There may be a menu at thebottom of display device 12, 14 that may display the credits conveyed toEGM 10 by the player or the amount of credits won by the player. Thecredits may be invisible or blurred out by default. When the playerfocuses their eye gaze on the user interface, the display controller 52may control display device 12, 14 to reveal or display the amount ofcredits. The graphical animation effect to reveal or display the amountof credits may be, for example, to display the invisible credit amount,or to put in focus the blurred out credit amount. This may allow theplayer to hide the amount of credits associated with the player or theamount of credits won by the player from nearby observers.

As another example, the game data and game rules of an interactive gamestored in the at least one data storage device may be such that thegraphics processor 54 generates an interactive game environment anddefines a viewing area displayed on display device 12, 14 by displaycontroller 52 that may be representative of a dark or black screen. Thegraphical animation effect and visual update based on the player eyegaze data may be representative of a player shining a flashlight on thedark or black screen. The flash light graphical animation effect mayfollow the eye gaze of the player and provides light to the darkenedscreen. This may be used as part of a bonus game or bonus feature wherethe player may be required to find and highlight objects hidden in thedark to reveal prizes.

In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and visual updatemay be representative of distorting a portion of the viewing area. Theplayer eye gaze data may be processed by game controller 44 to determinethe location of the eye gaze of the player relative to the viewing area.The display controller 52 may cause display device 12, 14 to display adistorted portion of the viewing area corresponding to the eye gaze ofthe player. This may be used to represent an effect of inebriation thatmay be part of the game play of the interactive game, depending on thegame rules of the interactive game. As another example, the graphicalanimation effect and visual update may distort the portion of theviewing area corresponding to where the player is not looking. This maycreate a tunnel vision effect. The viewing area corresponding to the eyegaze of the player may be clear, but the viewing area where the playeris not looking may be distorted.

In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and visual updatemay be representative of distorting a portion of a 2D or 3D visible gamecomponent displayed on display device 12, 14. The visible game componentmay be displayed with warped geometry as the player focuses their eyegaze on the visible game component. The geometry of at least a portionof the visible game component may be pushed in or pulled out based onthe player eye gaze data. The visible game component may be rendered ona quad that may be comprised of one or more smaller quads. When theplayer focuses their eye gaze on the visible game component, theportions of the visible game component closest to the player eye gazemay be displayed by display controller 52 on display device 12, 14 to bepushed in or pulled out to represent a warping of the visible gamecomponent.

In some embodiments, the graphical animation effect and visual updatemay be representative of hiding a portion of the visible gamecomponents. For example, during an interactive game, a flash may betriggered that may follow the eye gaze of the player. The flash may hidevisible game components displayed on the display device 12, 14. Thisgraphical animation effect and visual update may be used to simulate aflash bang, and a loud sound associated with the graphical animationeffect may be triggered, based on the player eye gaze data. As anotherexample, the graphical animation effect and visual update may representthe player throwing a flash bang grenade to the location of the viewingarea corresponding to the eye gaze of the player, and a large flash mayoriginate from the viewing area corresponding to the eye gaze of theplayer.

In some embodiments, the game controller 44 may process player eye gazedata to determine the location of the eye gaze of the player relative tothe viewing area and may trigger a select command for the player toselect a game component for a primary interactive game or a bonusinteractive game. The player may focus their eye gaze at a visible gamecomponent for a certain period of time. After the certain period oftime, the visible game component may break to reveal a prize hiddenbehind the visible game component.

In some embodiments, the visible game components displayed on displaydevice 12, 14 may react with the eye gaze of the player. There may beone or more visible game components that display controller 52 maydisplay on display device 12, 14 associated with the player winning aninteractive game. For example, one or more coins may be rendered to fallfrom the top of the display device 12, 14 to the bottom. The coins mayreact based on the eye gaze of the player. The coins may be attracted tothe location of the viewing area corresponding to the eye gaze of theplayer as determined by the game controller 44 and may collect at thatlocation of the viewing area.

In some embodiments, the at least one data capture camera device of EGM10 may continuously monitor an eye gesture of the player to collectplayer eye gesture data. Moreover, the at least one data capture cameradevice of EGM 10 may continuously monitor the player's movement, such asmovement of the player's head, movement of the player's body, orgestures made by the player to collect player eye gaze data or playermovement data. The game controller 44 triggers the control command tothe display controller 52 to dynamically update the rendering of theviewing area based on the player eye gesture data and/or player movementdata using the graphical animation effect to update the visible gamecomponents in the viewing area. For example, the at least one datacapture camera device may collect player eye gesture data representativeof the player squinting at a visible game component displayed on displaydevice 12, 14. The game controller 44 may trigger a control command todisplay controller 52 to update the rendering the viewing area inreal-time or in near real-time by displaying a graphical animationeffect representative of magnifying the visible game component. Asanother example, the at least one data capture camera device may collectplayer movement data representative of the player moving their hand in acertain direction towards a visible game component displayed on displaydevice 12, 14. The game controller 44 may trigger a control command todisplay controller 52 to update the rendering the viewing area inreal-time or in near real-time by displaying a graphical animationeffect representative of the player touching or interacting with thevisible game component.

In some embodiments, the eye gaze of a player may interact with aninteractive game that may include a 2D or 3D reel space. The at leastone data storage device may store game data for an interactive game thatmay include a reel space. The graphics processor 54 may generate aninteractive game environment, wherein the interactive game environmentmay provide a reel space of a matrix of plurality of game symbols. Thedisplay controller 52 may control display device 12, 14 to display aportion of the reel space. The display controller 52 may update therendering of the display device 12, 14 to display a graphical animationeffect representative of the reels spinning and stopping to present analignment of game symbols, for example, during the game play. Thepattern formed by the alignment of game symbols may trigger a particularoutcome to the game, such as a win or a loss. When the reels arespinning in the game, the player may focus their eye gaze at a reel,which may cause the display controller 52 to control display device 12,14 to display slower spinning of the reel to allow the player more timeto see what game symbols are displayed on the display device 12, 14.When the reels have stopped spinning, the player may focus their eyegaze at the top or bottom of the reel and the reel may “nudge” by one ormore spaces to affect the alignment of game symbols, which may affectthe outcome of the game. The player may collect one or more “nudges”during the game play as a collective item and may use them after thereels have stopped spinning.

In some embodiments, the eye gaze of the player may be used in aninteractive game that may include a reel space to trigger a bonusinteractive game. For example, one or more game symbols in aninteractive game may have a tile behind it. When a bonus is triggered,for example, based on an outcome of the game, a bonus object may becaused by display controller 52 to be displayed on display device 12,14. The player may focus their eye gaze on the bonus object and the tilebehind a game symbol may break. The bonus interactive game may betriggered and rendered on display device 12, 14 after each tile behind agame symbols breaks. As another example, when a pre-determined alignmentof game symbols occurs, each tile behind the aligned game symbols maycrack. The player may focus their eye gaze on a cracked tile to breakthe tile. Once all the tiles are broken, the bonus interactive game maybe triggered and rendered on display device 12, 14.

In some embodiments, the player may focus their eye gaze on a gamecomponent to trigger one or more outcomes, effects, features, and/orbonus games. This may cause the player to pay more attention to thegame, and may increase the enjoyment and interactivity experienced bythe player. The at least one data storage device of EGM 10 may storegame data for at least one interactive game and at least one bonus game.The game controller 44 may trigger the display controller 52 totransition from the at least one interactive game to the at least onebonus game based on the player eye gaze data using the graphicalanimation effect. The eye gaze of the player may trigger effectsassociated with the interactive game and/or commence the bonus game. Forexample, a bonus object such as a peephole may be displayed on displaydevice 12, 14. The player may focus their eye gaze on the peephole for apre-determined amount of time. Based on the player eye gaze data, thegame controller 44 may determine that the player has focused their eyegaze on the peephole for the pre-determined amount of time, and maytrigger the bonus game. The display controller 52 may control displaydevice 12, 14 to display a graphical animation effect representative ofzooming into the peephole and reveal the bonus screen. This may increasethe attention paid to EGM 10 by the player and the amount of enjoymentexperienced by the player when interacting with EGM 10.

The eye gaze of the player may affect the game play of the interactivegame, such as triggering and transitioning from a primary interactivegame to a bonus interactive game. The player may focus on a bonus object900 displayed on display device 12, 14 for display controller 52 tocontrol display device 12, 14 to render and display the bonus screen ofa bonus game. For example, as shown in FIG. 9A, display controller 52may control display device 12, 14 using graphics processor 54 to displaya flower, which may be the bonus object 900. The game controller 44 maydetermine, based on the collected player eye gaze data, that the playeris focusing their eye gaze on the flower. The game controller 44 maytrigger a control command to display controller 52, and in response, thedisplay controller 52 may display on display device 12, 14 usinggraphics processor 54 a graphical animation effect related to the bonusobject 900. For example, as shown in FIG. 9B, the graphical animationeffect may represent the flower growing as the player's eye gaze ismaintained on the flower. When the flower has grown to a certain point,the game controller 44 may trigger a control command to the displaycontroller 52 to transition from the primary interactive game to thebonus interactive game based on the player eye gaze data using agraphical animation effect, as shown in FIG. 9C. The graphical animationeffect may be a message stating that the bonus has been triggered.

The player may have to stare at a location of the display device 12, 14without blinking to trigger the bonus game. The at least one datacapture camera device may continuously monitor the eyes of the player tocollect player eye gaze data and player eye gesture data. The gamecontroller 44 may process the player eye gaze data and player eyegesture data to determine if the player has stared at a pre-determinedlocation of the viewing area without blinking by mapping the location ofthe eye gaze on the display device 12, 14 to the viewing area. After theplayer has stared at the pre-determined location of the viewing area forenough time without blinking, the game controller 44 may communicate acommand to display controller 52 to display the bonus game on displaydevice 12, 14. For example, as shown in FIG. 10, an avatar may bedisplayed on display device 12, 14. The avatar may relate to theinteractive game, the bonus game, branding associated with EGM 10,and/or the venue where the EGM 10 may be located. The avatar may benamed, based on its relationship with the interactive game, the bonusgame, branding associated with EGM 10, and/or the venue where the EGM10, such as “Mr. Cash Fever”. The bonus game may be triggered after theplayer plays a staring game with the avatar. The avatar may bepre-configured by game controller 44 to blink after a certain amount oftime. Game controller 44 may determine, based on the collected playereye gaze data and player eye gesture data, if a player is staring at thelocation of the viewing area corresponding to the eyes of the avatar,and if a player has blinked. Game controller 44 may determine if theavatar blinked first or if the player blinked first. If the gamecontroller 44 determines that the avatar blinked first, then it maytrigger a control command to display controller 52 to display agraphical animation effect on display device 12, 14 using graphicsprocessor 54 representative of transitioning from the primaryinteractive game to the bonus interactive game.

In some embodiments, display controller 52 may control display device12, 14 using graphics processor 54 to display one or more visible gamecomponents and/or one or more graphical animation effects representativeof the one or more visible game components interacting in response tothe eye movement, eye gesture, and/or movement of the player. This maybe implemented as part of a trigger of a bonus interactive game or aprize. For example, as shown in FIGS. 11A to 11C, one or more eyes 1120a, 1120 b, and 1120 c, may be displayed on display device 12, 14. Theeyes 1120 a, 1120 b, and 1120 c may be the eyes of a visible gamecomponent that may be a bonus visible game component. Game controller44, based on the player eye gaze data collected by the at least one datacapture camera device, may determine the location of the player's eyesin 3D space relative to EGM 10 and the focus of the player's gaze 1100on display device 12, 14.

The graphical animation effect displayed on display device 12, 14 bydisplay controller 52 may be for the eyes 1120 a, 1120 b, and 1120 c ondisplay device 12, 14 to track the player and/or the player's eye gaze1100. If the player and/or player eye gaze 1100 moves in a certaindirection, such as to the right, as shown in FIG. 11B compared to FIG.11A, the eyes 1120 a, 1120 b, 1120 c, displayed on the display device12, 14 may follow the player in the same direction. As another example,there may be more than one set of eyes displayed on display device 12,14. Each eye 1120 a, 1120 b, 1120 c may track and follow the playerand/or player eye gaze 1100. The player may focus their eye gaze 1100 onone of the eyes. As shown in FIG. 11C, the eye gaze 1100 of the playeris focused on eye 1120 c. The other eyes 1120 a and 1120 b may continueto track the player.

The game controller 44 may determine that the player is looking at oneof the eyes, and may trigger a control command to display controller 52to display on display device 12, 14 a graphical animation effect. Thegraphical animation effect may be representative of transitioning to abonus interactive game, or representative of triggering a prize for thegame, like a bonus multiplier, or a combination thereof. In someembodiments, a bonus multiplier game component may be revealed by thegraphical animation effect and game controller 44 may apply a bonusmultiplier corresponding to the bonus multiplier game component in thebonus interactive game. As yet another example, one or more eyesdisplayed on display device 12, 14 may be the eyes of a visible gamecomponent, such an avatar displayed on display device 12, 14, such as ananimal or a person.

The player may have to focus their eye gaze on a location of the viewingarea to trigger the bonus game. The location of the viewing area thatthe player has to focus on to trigger the bonus game may changegradually or suddenly, depending on the game rules. For example, asshown in FIGS. 12A to 12E, a bonus game trigger may require the playerto cause a game component representative of a bundle of dynamitedisplayed on display device 12, 14 by display controller 52 to explodeto trigger the bonus game.

As shown in FIG. 12A, a bonus game trigger event may occur. As shown inFIG. 12B, display controller 52 may control display device 12, 14 todisplay a game component representative of a stick or a bundle of sticksof dynamite. Display controller 52 may display on display device 12, 14a prompt for the player to light the fuse. The game controller 44 maydetermine that, based on the player eye gaze data, that the player maybe focusing their eye gaze 1200 on the viewing area corresponding to thelocation of the fuse. The game controller 44 may trigger a controlcommand to display controller 52 to display a graphical animation effectrepresentative of igniting the fuse. In some embodiments, a magnifyingglass game component may be displayed on display device 12, 14 bydisplay controller 52 to represent the eye gaze 1200 of the player. Avisible game component representative of the sun or a light source maybe displayed on display device 12, 14 by display controller 52 to act asthe source of light for the displayed magnifying glass game component,which may convey to the player that the player's eye gaze 1200 isrepresentative of a magnifying glass that focuses the light from thelight source to spark the fuse.

As shown in FIG. 12C, the player may maintain their eye gaze 1200 on thefuse for a specified amount of time. The at least one data capturecamera device may monitor the player's eye gaze 1200 and collect playereye gaze data. The game controller 44 may determine that the player isfocusing their eye gaze on the viewing area corresponding to thelocation of the fuse. Game controller 44 may trigger the control commandto display controller 52 to display a graphical animation effect ondisplay device 12, 14 representative of lighting the fuse.

As shown in FIG. 12D, a graphical animation effect may be displayed ondisplay device 12, 14 by display controller 52 representative of thefuse burning up. In some embodiments, the player may have to follow themoving spark along the fuse until the fuse has reached the bundle ofdynamite. The at least one data capture camera device may collect playereye gaze data, and game controller 44 may determine that the player'seye gaze is following the moving spark. The game controller 44 maycollect the player eye gaze data to determine if the player has lit thefuse and/or followed the spark along the fuse, and may send a controlcommand for display controller 52 to display a graphical animationeffect to transition to the bonus game and render the bonus screen ondisplay device 12, 14.

For example, as shown in FIG. 12E, once the graphical animation effectrepresentative of the spark has reached the visible game componentrepresentative of the stick or bundle of sticks of dynamite, thegraphical animation effect displayed on display device 12, 14 mayrepresent an explosion of the dynamite, the bonus may be triggered, andthere may be a transition from the primary interactive game to the bonusinteractive game.

In some embodiments, the player may interact with the bonus game usingthe eye gaze of the player. The at least one data storage device maystore game data for at least one bonus game. The game controller 44 maytrigger the control command to the display controller 52 to dynamicallyupdate the rendering of the viewing area to provide a real-time or nearreal-time graphical animation effect displayed on the display device 12,14 representative of a visual update to the visible game components ofthe bonus game in the viewing area, the visual update based on theplayer eye gaze data.

For example, the bonus game may be a whack-a-mole bonus game, which mayhave visible game components appear and disappear on display device 12,14. When a player focus their eye gaze at one or more visible gamecomponents, the display controller 52 may control the display device 12,14 to display a graphical animation effect representative of collectingthe visible game components. The visible game components may becollected for a prize. After a pre-determined amount of visible gamecomponents have been collected, the bonus game may be finished.

As another example, the bonus game may require the player close one eyeto trigger breaking of visible game components that the player islooking at with their open eye. The at least one data capture cameradevice may collect player eye gaze data and the player eye gesture data.The game controller 44 may process the player eye gaze data and theplayer eye gesture data to determine that a player is looking at acertain visible game component with one eye, and may send a command todisplay controller 52 to cause display device 12, 14 to display agraphical animation effect representative of breaking the visible gamecomponent when the player blinks with the other eye. For the player, theblink of the eye may represent an action such as pulling a trigger on agun.

As yet another example, the bonus game may require the player to act asa wizard. The player may interact with the bonus game with the eye gazeof the player, the movement of the player, or both. The at least onedata capture camera device may continuously monitor the eye gaze of theplayer and the movement of the player to collect player eye gaze dataand player movement data. Based on the player eye gaze data and theplayer eye gesture data, the game controller 44 may trigger a controlcommand to the display controller 52 to display a graphical animationeffect on display device 12, 14 representative of the player castingspells to interact with visible game components and to uncover prizes.

In some embodiments, the interactive game may require skill from theplayer to complete. For example, the interactive game may require aplayer to complete a task within a finite amount of time. The amount oftime remaining for the player to complete the task may be displayed ondisplay device 12, 14 to increase pressure on the player. For example,the interactive game may be a skill-based maze bonus game. The playermay control an avatar using the player's eye gaze to travel through aseries of mazes. The player may cause the avatar to collect prizes.There may be a timer to indicate the amount of time the player maynavigate the maze. The maze may include traps that may be visible orinvisible. The player may look at the traps with their gaze todeactivate the traps and allow the avatar to continue through the maze.Once the player has guided the avatar to the exit, the player may play anew stage of the maze based upon the amount of prizes collect, or themaze game may finish. The threshold for the amount of prizes needed tobe collected may progressively increase based upon which bonus stage theplayer is at. The maze bonus game may be configured to have one or morelevels of difficulty. The higher the difficulty, the less time theplayer may have to complete the maze challenge and the player may haveto navigate through more traps in the maze.

In some embodiments, for another skill-based maze game, while the playerleads an avatar through a maze using the eye gaze of the player, theremay be special tiles that the display controller 52 may be configured tocause to appear on the display device 12, 14. The player may have aspecified number of breakable tiles actions. While moving the avatarthrough the maze, the player may break any wall by locking their gaze onthe wall. This may be used to help the player to find the exit.

A player may play one or more games at EGM 10. The player may have theoption of selecting an interactive game from a plurality of interactivegames to be played at EGM 10 when the player initially conveys creditsto EGM 10. However, not all game selector symbols may be displayed ondisplay device 12, 14 because the display device 12, 14 may lack space.EGM 10 of the present invention may overcome the lack of space on thedisplay device 12, 14. The player may use their eye gaze to display aplurality of game selector symbols and to select and play a game fromthe plurality of games. In some embodiments, EGM 10 may have a cardreader to identify the monetary amount conveyed by the player to the EGM10. The EGM 10 may have at least one data storage device that may storegame data for a plurality of interactive games. The graphics processor54 may generate an interactive game environment in accordance with a setof game rules using the game data and define a viewing area as a subsetof the interactive game environment, the viewing area having one or moregame selector symbols. EGM 10 may have display device 12, 14 to displayvia a user interface the viewing area having the one or more gameselector symbols. EGM 10 may have a display controller 52 to controlrendering of the viewing area on the display device 12, 14 using thegraphics processor 54. At least one data capture camera device maycontinuously monitor the eye gaze of a player to collect player eye gazedata. A game controller 44 may determine a location of the eye gaze ofthe player relative to the viewing area using the player eye gaze dataand triggering a control command to the display controller 52 todynamically update the rendering of the viewing area based on the playereye gaze data. In response to the control command, the displaycontroller 52 may control the display device 12, 14 in real-time or nearreal-time using the graphics processor 54 to dynamically update therendering of the viewing area to provide a real-time or near real-timegraphical animation effect displayed on the display device 12, 14representative of a visual update corresponding to selecting one of thegame selector symbols in the viewing area and displaying a selectedinteractive game for the selected game selector symbol, the visualupdate based on the player eye gaze data. For example, displaycontroller 52 may control display device 12, 14 to display a pluralityof game selector symbols configured in the shape of a carousel. Based onthe eye gaze of the player, such as up, down, left, or right, thedisplay controller 52 may control display device 12, 14 to display arotating carousel of game selector symbols, which may reveal additionaland hidden game selector symbols. Based on the eye gaze of the player,such as looking at or near the center of display device 12, 14, therotating carousel of game selector symbols may slow down or stop at agame selector symbol corresponding to the player's preferred game. Inresponse to an outcome of the interactive game, the card reader mayupdate the monetary amount. The player may focus on the game selectorsymbol to select and play the game. In some embodiments, the player mayscroll through the plurality of game selector symbols using their eyegaze, eye gestures, the movement of their head, the movement of theirbody, or a combination thereof.

A player may use their eye gaze to navigate through the interactive gameenvironment, change the camera angle on a visible game component, andreveal objects in the interactive game environment that may not be inthe viewing area. The EGM 10 may have a card reader to identify amonetary amount conveyed by a player to the EGM 10. The EGM 10 may haveat least one data storage device to store game data for an interactivegame. The graphics processor 54 may generate an interactive gameenvironment in accordance with a set of game rules using the game dataand define a viewing area as a first portion of the interactive gameenvironment. The display device 12, 14 may display via a user interfacethe viewing area. Display controller 52 may control rendering of theviewing area on the display device 12, 14 using the graphics processor54. At least one data capture camera device may continuously monitor eyegaze of a player to collect player eye gaze data. The game controller 44may determine a location of the eye gaze of the player relative to theviewing area using the player eye gaze data and triggering a controlcommand to the display controller 52 to dynamically update the renderingof the viewing area based on the player eye gaze data. In response tothe control command, the display controller 52 controls the displaydevice 12, 14 in real-time or near real-time using the graphicsprocessor to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area inreal-time or near real-time to navigate to the second portion of theinteractive game environment, wherein the update comprises a graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device representative ofnavigating to the second portion of the interactive game environment,the update based on the player eye gaze data. In response to an outcomeof the interactive game, the card reader updates the monetary amount. Aplayer may use their eye gaze, eye gestures, head movement, bodymovement, or any combination thereof to navigate through the interactivegame environment, change the camera angle on a visible game component,and reveal objects in the interactive game environment that may not bein the viewing area.

For example, as illustrated in FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, the graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device 12, 14 may represent asmooth sliding transition from the first portion of the interactive gameenvironment to the second portion of the interactive game environment.Graphics processor 54 may generate interactive game environment 1410 inaccordance with a set of game rules using the game data for one or moreinteractive games stored in at least one data storage device.Interactive game environment 1410 may include one or more visible gamecomponents. In FIG. 13 and FIG. 14, three visible game components 1450a, 1450 b, and 1450 c are shown, but there may be more or less visiblegame components based on the game data of the one or more interactivegames. Graphics processor 54 may define a viewing area 1440 as a firstportion of the interactive game environment. In FIG. 13, the viewingarea 1440 includes visible game component 1450 a. Display device 12, 14may display viewing area 1440. Display controller 52 may controlrendering of the viewing area on the display device 12, 14 using thegraphics processor 54. Game controller 44 may process player eye gazedata collected from the at least one data capture camera device todetermine that the eye gaze of the player 1430 may be focused on visiblegame component 1450 a. As illustrated in FIG. 13, player 1420 may viewvisible game component 1450 a on display device 12, 14. Player 1420 maywish to navigate to another area of the interactive game environment1410. Game controller 44 may determine that the location of the eye gazeof the player relative to the viewing area has changed. For example, theplayer 1420 may be looking at the top portion of display device 12, 14.Based on this change of location of the eye gaze 1430, game controller44 may trigger a control command to the display controller 52 todynamically update the rendering of the viewing area 1440. Displaycontroller 52 may update the rendering of the viewing area 1440 inreal-time or near real-time to navigate to the second portion of theinteractive game environment 1410. A graphical animation effect, such asa sliding animation effect, may be used to transition from the viewingarea 1440 comprising a first portion of the interactive game environment1410 to the viewing area 1440 comprising a second portion of theinteractive game environment. As shown in FIG. 14, the viewing area 1440is a second portion of the interactive game environment 1410 that isdifferent from the first portion of the interactive game environment.The viewing area 1440 comprising the second portion of the interactivegame environment 1410 contains visible game component 1450 b. Since theviewing area 1440 is displayed on display device 12, 14, from theperspective of player 1420, the player's eye gaze has caused atransition from a first portion of the interactive game environment 1410to a second portion of the interactive game environment 1410. The effectof the eye gaze of the player may be to navigate the interactive gameenvironment 1410. The player 1420 was looking at visible game component1450 a, and through navigation of the interactive game environment 1410,the player 1420 discovered visible game component 1450 b. This maycreate the effect that the display device 12, 14 is an infinitely largescreen.

As another example, one or more visible game components 1450 may bewithin a viewing area 1440 and displayed on display device 12, 14 with acertain camera angle or view angle. The game controller 44 may processcollected player eye gaze data and trigger a control command to displaycontroller 52 to update the rendering of the viewing area 1440 inreal-time or near real-time to display a graphical animation effectrepresentative of changing the camera angle or view angle. From theperspective of player 1420, the graphical animation effect may appear tobe a rotation of the one or more visible game components 1450 on displaydevice 12, 14.

The embodiments of the devices, systems and methods described herein maybe implemented in a combination of both hardware and software. Theseembodiments may be implemented on programmable computers, each computerincluding at least one processor, a data storage system (includingvolatile memory or non-volatile memory or other data storage elements ora combination thereof), and at least one communication interface.

Program code is applied to input data to perform the functions describedherein and to generate output information. The output information isapplied to one or more output devices. In some embodiments, thecommunication interface may be a network communication interface. Inembodiments in which elements may be combined, the communicationinterface may be a software communication interface, such as those forinter-process communication. In still other embodiments, there may be acombination of communication interfaces implemented as hardware,software, and combination thereof.

Throughout the following discussion, numerous references will be maderegarding servers, services, interfaces, portals, platforms, or othersystems formed from computing devices. It should be appreciated that theuse of such terms is deemed to represent one or more computing deviceshaving at least one processor configured to execute softwareinstructions stored on a computer readable tangible, non-transitorymedium. For example, a server can include one or more computersoperating as a web server, database server, or other type of computerserver in a manner to fulfill described roles, responsibilities, orfunctions. The devices provide improved computer solutions for hardwarelimitations such as display screen, display device, and so on.

The following discussion provides many example embodiments. Althougheach embodiment represents a single combination of inventive elements,other examples may include all possible combinations of the disclosedelements. Thus if one embodiment comprises elements A, B, and C, and asecond embodiment comprises elements B and D, other remainingcombinations of A, B, C, or D, may also be used.

The term “connected” or “coupled to” may include both direct coupling(in which two elements that are coupled to each other contact eachother) and indirect coupling (in which at least one additional elementis located between the two elements).

Embodiments described herein may be implemented by using hardware onlyor by using software and a necessary universal hardware platform. Basedon such understandings, the technical solution of embodiments may be inthe form of a software product. The software product may be stored in anon-volatile or non-transitory storage medium, which can be a compactdisk read-only memory (CD-ROM), USB flash disk, or a removable harddisk. The software product includes a number of instructions that enablea computer device (personal computer, server, or network device) toexecute the methods provided by the embodiments.

The embodiments described herein are implemented by physical computerhardware. The embodiments described herein provide useful physicalmachines and particularly configured computer hardware arrangements. Theembodiments described herein are directed to electronic machines methodsimplemented by electronic machines adapted for processing andtransforming electromagnetic signals which represent various types ofinformation. The embodiments described herein pervasively and integrallyrelate to machines, and their uses; and the embodiments described hereinhave no meaning or practical applicability outside their use withcomputer hardware, machines, a various hardware components. Substitutingthe computing devices, servers, receivers, transmitters, processors,memory, display, networks particularly configured to implement variousacts for non-physical hardware, using mental steps for example, maysubstantially affect the way the embodiments work. Such computerhardware limitations are clearly essential elements of the embodimentsdescribed herein, and they cannot be omitted or substituted for mentalmeans without having a material effect on the operation and structure ofthe embodiments described herein. The computer hardware is essential tothe embodiments described herein and is not merely used to perform stepsexpeditiously and in an efficient manner.

For example, and without limitation, the computing device may be aserver, network appliance, set-top box, embedded device, computerexpansion module, personal computer, laptop, personal data assistant,cellular telephone, smartphone device, UMPC tablets, video displayterminal, gaming console, electronic reading device, and wirelesshypermedia device or any other computing device capable of beingconfigured to carry out the methods described herein.

Although the embodiments have been described in detail, it should beunderstood that various changes, substitutions and alterations can bemade herein without departing from the scope as defined by the appendedclaims.

Moreover, the scope of the present application is not intended to belimited to the particular embodiments of the process, machine,manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods and steps describedin the specification. As one of ordinary skill in the art will readilyappreciate from the disclosure of the present invention, processes,machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps,presently existing or later to be developed, that perform substantiallythe same function or achieve substantially the same result as thecorresponding embodiments described herein may be utilized. Accordingly,the appended claims are intended to include within their scope suchprocesses, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter, means,methods, or steps.

As can be understood, the examples described above and illustrated areintended to be exemplary only.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising: a data storage device tostore program data for an interactive program; a graphics processor togenerate an interactive program environment using the program data anddefine a viewing area as a first portion of the interactive programenvironment, the viewing area representing a virtual camera view of theinteractive program environment; a display device to display via a userinterface the viewing area; a display controller to control rendering ofthe viewing area on the display device using the graphics processor; adata capture camera device to continuously monitor eye gaze of a user tocollect user eye gaze data; and a program controller to determine alocation of the eye gaze of the user relative to the viewing area usingthe user eye gaze data and to trigger a control command to the displaycontroller to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area basedon the user eye gaze data; wherein, in response to the control command,the display controller controls the display device using the graphicsprocessor to dynamically update the rendering of the viewing area tonavigate to a second portion of the interactive program environment,wherein the update comprises a graphical animation effect displayed onthe display device representative of navigating from the first portionto the second portion of the interactive program environment, the updatebased on the user eye gaze data.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, whereinthe user eye gaze data corresponds to a camera angle for the virtualcamera view of the interactive program environment and the graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device representative ofnavigating from the first portion to the second portion is based on thecamera angle to update the virtual camera view of the interactiveprogram environment.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the displaycontroller controls the display device to display a plurality ofcalibration symbols, wherein the data capture camera device monitorscalibration eye gaze of the user in relation to the calibration symbolsto collect calibration data, and wherein the program controllercalibrates the data capture camera device and the display device basedon the calibration data for the continuous monitoring.
 4. The apparatusof claim 1, wherein the user eye gaze data comprises a position and afocus, the position defined as coordinates of the user's eyes relativeto the display device, the focus defined as a line of sight of theuser's eyes relative to the display device.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the program controller determines the location of the eye gazeof the user relative to the viewing area by identifying coordinates onthe display device corresponding to the user eye gaze data and mappingthe coordinates to the viewing area.
 6. The apparatus of claim 1,wherein the program controller defines a filter movement threshold,wherein the program controller, prior to determining the location of theeye gaze of the user relative to the viewing area and triggering thecontrol command to the display controller to dynamically update therendering of the viewing area, determines that the user eye gaze meetsthe filter movement threshold.
 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein theprogram controller predicts the location of the eye gaze of the userrelative to the viewing area at a future time using the user eye gazedata and historical data from the same or other users to facilitatedynamic predictive update of the rendering of the viewing area.
 8. Theapparatus of claim 1, wherein the data capture camera devicecontinuously monitors an area proximate to the apparatus to collectproximity data, wherein the program controller detects a location of theuser relative to the apparatus based on the proximity data, and triggersthe display controller to display an advertisement on the displaydevice.
 9. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the display controllerrenders a gaze-sensitive user interface on the display device, whereinthe program controller detects the location of the eye gaze of the userrelative to the gaze-sensitive user interface using the user eye gazedata, and triggers the display controller to dynamically update therendering of the gaze-sensitive user interface to provide a real-time ornear real-time graphical animation effect displayed on the displaydevice representative of a visual update to the gaze-sensitive userinterface.
 10. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the graphics processorgenerates left and right eye images based on a selectedthree-dimensional intensity level, wherein the display device is astereoscopic display device, and wherein the program controller triggersthe control command to the display controller to dynamically update therendering of the of the left and right eye images based on the user eyegaze data.
 11. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the data capture cameradevice continuously monitors an eye gesture of the user to collect usereye gesture data, and wherein the program controller triggers thecontrol command to the display controller to dynamically update therendering of the viewing area based on the user eye gesture data usingthe graphical animation effect to navigate from the first portion of theinteractive program environment to the second portion of the interactiveprogram environment.
 12. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the datacapture camera device continuously monitors user movement to collectuser movement data, wherein the program controller detects the usermovement relative to the viewing area using the user movement data, andtriggers the control command to the display controller to dynamicallyupdate the rendering of the viewing area based on the user movement datausing the graphical animation effect to navigate from the first portionof the interactive program environment to the second portion of theinteractive program environment.
 13. The apparatus of claim 12, whereinthe user movement data is associated with movement of the user's head.14. The apparatus of claim 12, wherein the user movement data isassociated with movement of a part of the user's body.
 15. The apparatusof claim 12, wherein the user movement data is associated with a gestureby the user.
 16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the viewing area hasa plurality of visible program components; wherein the programcontroller determines another location of the eye gaze of the userrelative to the viewing area using the user eye gaze data and triggersanother control command to the display controller to dynamically updatethe rendering of the viewing area based on the user eye gaze data; andwherein, in response to the control command, the display controllercontrols the display device using the graphics processor to dynamicallyupdate the rendering of the viewing area for the selected interactiveprogram to provide another real-time or near real-time graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device representative ofanother visual update to manipulate the display of the plurality ofvisible program components in the viewing area, the other visual updatebased on the user eye gaze data and the virtual camera view.
 17. Theapparatus of claim 16, wherein the other graphical animation effect andthe other visual update focuses on a portion of the visible programcomponents and blurs another portion of the visible program elements.18. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the viewing area for the selectedinteractive program has a plurality of invisible program components, andwherein the other graphical animation effect and the other visual updaterenders visible at least a portion of the invisible program components.19. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the other graphical animationeffect and the other visual update distorts a portion of the viewingarea, distorts a portion of the visible program components, displays atleast a portion of the visible program components in greater detail orhigher resolution, magnifies a portion of the visible program componentsor hides a portion of the visible program components.
 20. The apparatusof claim 1, the viewing area having one or more program selector symbolsfor the plurality of interactive programs, wherein in response to thecontrol command, the display controller controls the display deviceusing the graphics processor to dynamically update the rendering of theviewing area to provide another real-time or near real-time graphicalanimation effect displayed on the display device representative ofanother visual update corresponding to selecting one of the programselector symbols in the viewing area, removing the one or more programselector symbols, and displaying a selected interactive program for theselected program selector symbol in the viewing area, the other visualupdate based on the user eye gaze data.